Re: virus: Meme Generators

JPS (schneids@centuryinter.net)
Thu, 31 Oct 1996 14:49:17 -0600


David Leeper wrote:
[clip]
> I have one question, though.
>
> Many religious doctrines are vauge and open to interpretion.
> For example, Jesus's statement "I and my Father are One."
> could be interpreted as being equivlent to Zero's "Man is God."

I interpret it as you, (or Zero), have it. Actually, I might be
inclined to think of it as Heinlein did: 'thou art god, the Happy
Grasses are god, etc....' i.e. everything is god... Jesus also
said somewhere that with 'faith', his followers could do everything
he did and more: that is, they could be god-like. I mentioned this
on a Religion board on TIME's Pathfinder, and was immediately warned
off of 'making God into my own image'...
But - this is getting rather vague and off-point, so, anyway....

> Could vauge statements be seen as meme generators, and
> therefore have a utility not found in precise statements?

'Degree of vagueness' is a hard thing to measure.... I think
most any statement could yield several 'competitive alleles',
so to speak, although, as you indicate, a vague statement
would likely yield more such alleles.

-JPSchneider