[extropy-chat] Fwd: Calvin and Memes (was Memes and Identity)

[Robert Bradbury]

On 11/12/06, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:
>
>
> It threatens to keep on expanding until the term has lost all utility
> whatsoever.


Only to those items it can be applied to.  Think of how many words there are
in the English language which mean the same thing, "part" for example, you
have body parts, car parts, nano parts, etc.

If you want me to use the term RCNPFUEM (Replicating Cortex Neural Patterns
Fundamentally Underlying External Memes) I'm happy to do so, but I don't
think people will understand what I'm saying in front of a conference room
(at least until Google has indexed this message and people have agreed upon
the definition and put it in Wikipedia...

I like being Humpty Dumpty.  In this case it is *I*, not Calvin, who may be
allowing the word to mean "more".  You are simply arguing for "less".

To include *memories* and *any information that can be copied* seems like
> going way too far.


Not when the cultural memes have a real physical basis in the neural
patterns that are going on in the brains (IMO).

I think that it may be a lost cause to remove "ideas" from being memes.
> Haven't we just seen that usage in too many places?  But if we can
> restrict its meaning, in my opinion we should.


Ok, I'll use RCNPFUEM from now on when I'm talking about the topic of
internal neural patterns that behave like memes.  But the newbies will be
lost and a lot of people will be taking up valuable conference time asking
me to explain how to spell rec-nep-fuem and what it means.  :-)

Robert
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