From: Billy Brown (bbrown@conemsco.com)
Date: Mon Jan 25 1999 - 09:10:42 MST
James Ganong wrote:
> OK, we've gone over several physical technologies so far, but
> what about memetics?
> Could it ever be developed to the point of being an actual
> technology/engineering discipline?
Of course it could. IMHO, you don't even need nanotech brain surgery to do
it. People actually seem to be pretty easy to influence, as long as you
approach the problem the right way. The hard part would be developing a
technique for testing the effectiveness of competing approaches in an
objective fashion. Once you have that, experimenters can begin building a
sound base of knowledge in the field. Once you have enough empirical data
to be able to say you know how to do some limited set of things reliably,
you have an engineering discipline.
> Why or why not? What could happen if it were so developed?
That's the catch. Memetic engineering would could benefit us all by making
it possible to build better mental immune systems, weed out false memes more
reliably, and so on. It could also be used for mind control - a large
fraction of the human race appears to be very susceptible to infectious
memes, after all. Oppressive governments would use it to subdue the
populace, megalomaniacs would use it to create cults, and activists of every
sort would use it to support their pet causes. The result could easily be
an increasing polarization of the human race into warring ideological camps.
Now, I'm not suggesting that this means we shouldn't try to do it. Any
ability can be used for evil, after all. I just think we should keep our
eyes open.
BTW - This is one reason why some of us are so nervous about the idea of
confronting an SI. Circumstantial evidence seems to suggest that humans
have very weak mental immune systems. An entity a great deal smarter than
we are might well be able to exploit those weaknesses to manipulate us into
doing just about anything, just by engaging in conversation that leads
subtly in the desired direction.
Billy Brown, MCSE+I
bbrown@conemsco.com
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