[ExI] Too many level shifts was Nature Hates a Vacuum

[hkhenson]

At 08:31 AM 12/11/2007, Terry wrote:
>(keith wrote)
>"I can't see that breeding--in a pre contraceptive era--needed any
>religious support.  Generally humans populated whatever space they
>had to the maximum extent possible."
>
>Hi Keith, I think you "hit the nail's head" this time. Someone also
>said that "nature hates a vacuum." We are all part of nature with
>expanding memes to occupy whatever space we find in time. In the
>physical universe, energy expands according to the principle of
>thermodynamics.

To a very good approximation nature is *all* vacuum. That saying 
originated with experimenters at the bottom of a ocean of air in the 
days when leather flap valves were high tech.

Memes, in a way sort of analogous to genes, do spread into a 
population of susceptible hosts.  How the susceptibility of the hosts 
varies with time and the presence of other memes is a subject of 
considerable interest to me.

Trying to bring in thermodynamics is shifting too many levels in a 
discussion.  But then I might be overly sensitive to this as a result 
of some particularly bad experiences with people who should know 
where their competence ends supporting a subtile vandal on Wikipedia 
who was pushing his "human thermodynamic" theory.

Applying theory from one level more than a level away has to be done 
with great caution.  Here is my list of discussion levels.

memes (culture)
human biology and EP
rest of biology
chemistry
physics

Keith