RE: virus: MS Weapon
Robin Faichney (r.j.faichney@stir.ac.uk)
Tue, 7 Oct 1997 10:11:46 +0100
> From: Richard Brodie[SMTP:RBrodie@brodietech.com]
>
> On Monday, October 6, 1997 8:44 AM, David McFadzean
> [SMTP:david@lucifer.com] wrote:
> > That's a fair criticism. Can we all agree on this
> > much: "patterns exist"? (Actually I'm not at all
> > sure how Richard would answer that question.)
>
> Richard would answer that question by saying that patterns exist only
> in
> the mind of the beholder. This is easily demonstrated by showing
> people
> drawings that can be interpreted several ways (see Goedel Escher
> Bach).
>
That doesn't show that patterns exist only in the mind of
the beholder. It shows merely that different people
match different patterns. I content that these patterns
people see, eg in clouds and Rorshach (sp?) ink blots,
are *all* there. To quote myself (for what that's worth):
nothing comes from nothing. People don't invent, they
select.
(And memes are real, too.)
The attribution of properties is a bit different: it's based
on pattern matching, but is more than that. The fact
that all these patterns are "out there", hardly diminishes
the subjective aspect of our perception of "reality".
Apart from anything else, selection's subjective, isn't it!
And we are not capable of getting within a million miles
of ceasing to select, and seeing all present patterns at
once, ie being truely objective.
Robin