----------
From: Lloyd Miller, Research Director[SMTP:lloyd@a-albionic.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 02, 1997 4:46 AM
To: RBrodie@brodietech.com
Cc: James Daugherty; New Paradigms Discussion List
Subject: Memes and Conspiracy
I have been reading your book, Virus of the Mind, and was pleased
to see your section "conspiracy theories". Now, my associate James
Daugherty tells me you are on the Extropian list. Both James and I are
quite impressed with the Extropians.
Many years ago before I had even heard of memes I came up with the
idea that "Conspiracy theory is a heurism for social organism theory",
meaning that most "conspiracies" are really "macrobes" or "social
organisms" controlled and unified by what I then called "idea cement".
Yah, I know, I invented the word "heurism" to mean a learning device, in
this case, leading to social organism theory. Anyway, what I was getting
at is a way of explaining how most members of a "conspiracy" are
unconscious of the overall goals of their social organism yet act in a
co-ordinated fashion to achieve the goals of the organism.
Perhaps I should finish reading your book before I say this, but,
in my opinion, memeticians are failing to take seriously that memes are to
social organisms or macrobes as genes are to biological organisms.
Ultimately, memes survive because they impart characteristics to their
macrobe that enhance survival of the macrobe just as genes impart survival
characteristics to biological organisms. Memeticians seem to fall into
the view that memes compete directly with each other....like a catchy
virus. Yup, we probably have a big disagreement on this one, judging from
the title of your book.
As an aside, I see no reason why especially well developed
macrobes might not be "conscious" in the same way that well developed
biological organisms seem to be "conscious". Note that in both cases
consciousness would be independent of any cell or individual, a not well
understood property of a complex organism.
Another aside: The focus on the possibility a "one world" macrobe, Gaia,
has diverted attention from the much better developed power organism more
available for study: The major world religions, power establishments,
etc.
_Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme_ by Richard Brodie
New Hardcover, In Stock at A-albionic Research, $22.00 + $3.00 postage and
handling.
//////////FREE RARE BOOK SEARCH: http://a-albionic.com/search.html \\\\\\\\\
Lloyd Miller, Research Director for A-albionic Research (POB 20273,
Ferndale, MI 48220), a ruling class/conspiracy research resource for the
entire political-ideological spectrum. Quarterly journal, book sales,
rare/out-of-print searches, New Paradigms Discussion List, Weekly Up-date
Lists & E-text Archive of research, intelligence, catalogs, & resources.
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\*///////////////////////////////////////
**E-Mail Update/Discussion/Archive**|*******World Wide Web/Gopher/FTP*******
mailto:majordomo@mail.msen.com | http://a-albionic.com/
message text: info prj | gopher://gopher.a-albionic.com:9006
//// http://msen.com/~lloyd/ //////*\\\\\\ mailto:lloyd@a-albionic.com \\\\