> At 06:28 PM 9/19/97 -0700, Tadeusz Niwinski wrote:
>
> >A question to all concerned with memetical experiments: Do we have axioms
> >and if so, what do you think of the 3 axioms I have suggested:
> >> (1) Memes exist.
> >> (2) Memes control what we do.
> >> (3) We are capable of selecting memes we let control what we do.
> >
> >#(3) seems to be the most controversial.
>
> I would like to suggest another:
> (1a) We are our memes.
>
> So from (1a) and (2):
> (4) We control what we do.
>
> >From (1a) and (3)
> (5) Our memes are capable of selecting memes we let control what we do.
Yes. Thank you, David.
But we're not solely memetic creatures, so I do have a quibble with 1a.
We are the combination of our genes and our memes. That _combination_ has
some power of selection over what memes it accepts as part of itself.
And as for Brett's response, about how memes can control us if we control
memes--Since our minds *are* our memes (in combination with innate
features), the two statements are not contradictory. They are two
different ways of looking at the same thing. The whole makes decisions on
what parts to include, and those parts affect the decisions the whole
makes.
Eva,
who doesn't _always_ append a state label to her name, and is much less
likely to at 4:59 on a Friday afternoon.