From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Sat Oct 28 2000 - 19:44:01 MDT
"Skye" <skyezacharia@yahoo.com> has written,
> I think there's a confusion present in whatever system
> created this. If we apply genetic terms to ideas, the
> only assumption can be that they work to propogate
> themselves, not people. People can go die for all
> ideas care. Martyr, even.
Right, ideas can't care. People can, but usually don't.
Apathy, acedia, and existential angst have memetic as well as physiological
vectors.
> There are a lot of flexible or adaptive type systems,
> though, that will occasionally make a move to
> accomodate another system in order to enhance its own
> success, but this is usually the exception rather than
> the rule. I seem to remember certain neurological
> studies reported in this book I read yesterday called
> "A New Psychology of Men" (I know, sounds stupid, but
> I had several hours in the library and had already
> gotten through ten books in the last two) in which it
> said that male babies tend to actually be more
> emotional than female ones- and drew the conclusion
> that there are sociologically inherent structures
> which try to teach men to be unemotional in some
> respects through isolation and emotional scarring.
Yes, that's right. I've heard of other studies which show that male babies are
held, cuddled, and caressed more than are female babies. Some researchers have
speculated that this may relate to boys' inferior verbal skills, compared to
girls.
> Being that the social structure of a species is
> adaptive and at least semi-functional in terms of
> system survival (a whole branch of sociology is
> dedicated to this stuff, actually), it may be one case
> in which our individual genetic/behavioral
> predilections are overriden by another reflexive
> system- in this case the behavior of the societal
> organism/brain/whatever.
Other cases in which genetic/biological predilections are overridden by the
social organism include (but are not limited to) marriage, sportsmanship, and
soldiering.
As I said, The time has come to drop memetic
Darwinism, because it isn't fit for transhumans, and even less fit for extropic
Artilects and Spiritual Machines.
Stay hungry,
--J. R.
3M TA3
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