Re: Spreading better memes (Re: Can Extropianism and Islam coexist?)

From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Sat Mar 29 2003 - 05:35:24 MST

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    On Fri, Mar 28, 2003 at 05:58:44PM -0800, Cory Przybyla wrote:
    > What are recommendations for the best way to spread
    > transhuman memes to the more resistant population,
    > which also seems to be in the vast majority?

    I'll repost something I wrote 1.5 years ago to this list.
    (intense work month for me, getting back to that)

    Ciao,
    Amara

    -------------------------------------
    December 2001
    Re: Meme-set conflicts [was Re: some U.S. observations and notes]

    From: Anders Sandberg <asa@nada.kth.se>, Sat, 15 Dec 2001:

    >No need to coerce people, just give them a chance to convince
    >everybody that their memes are the best (according to some values)
    >on a free memetic market.

    I don't see how it could be any other way. A human being has such a
    rich mix of philosophies, experiences, intellects, skills, desires, goals,
    prejudices, emotions, etc., that, in my opinion, all anyone can do
    if they want to 'teach' an idea in a nonacademic setting is:

    1) be an example,
    2) 'plant seeds' for ideas

    The notion of 'Converting a meme-set' is completely against my
    ethics and as coersive as I can imagine. If you think of an idea as
    a seed that germinates and grows, then either a person has the
    internal 'soil' where that seed will germinate, or he/she doesn't.
    It's very cool if they do take to it, but if the soil is not right
    for that idea then it's not right, and that's all. Find a way to
    present that idea (or 'be' that idea), and let it go. If that person
    likes the idea then they'll return to you with questions.

    So while I've been practicing the above for 20+ years, the Sufis
    have been practicing a much richer way to present ideas for 1000+
    years. Their way uses a presentation method which I call 'picture
    word concepts'. Even though the Sufis are a poor fit in a Moslem
    mosque, they are a perfect fit in the Arabic language, and this is
    one of the most important reasons they have for choosing Arabic
    as their primary language to express their concepts (as I
    understand these people).

    The Sufis don't use *one* word to concisely present an idea, they
    let the Arabic language concisely present an 'impression' via the
    roots of a word. You start with a particular Arabic word, extract
    the root, then generate/expand more words from the root. These
    special words with the roots describe a complex set of ideas which
    accord with a number of Sufi ideas and practices, and build up, on
    close examination, a 'word picture'. With the meanings taken together,
    the word carries a message or composite presentation of certain
    essentials. It extends the dimensions of meaning, through the word
    and its derivatives, and acts like an impression.

    For example, the Sufi traveler belongs to a 'tariqa'. This word
    means: course, rule of life, order of dervishes. The nearest
    approximation to the sense of this word is 'way' in English, the
    way of doing a thing, the way upon which a person is traveling, the
    way as an individual. But there's much more meaning to this word for
    the Sufis. The root is (TaRiQa). Now expand the TRQ root:

    TaRQ = sound of a musical instrument
    TaTaRRaQ Li = to aim at, to wish, to draw near to
    ATRaQ = to remain silent with downcast eyes
    TaRRaQ Li = to open the way to
    TaRaQ = to come to anyone by night
    TuRQaT = way, road; method; habit
    TaRIQAt = lofty palm tree

    So for the Sufis, the tariqa is the Path in which resides the
    transmission. It is a rule of living, a thin line within ordinary
    life, sometimes maintained through the note of music, expressed
    visually by the palm tree. The tariqa itself opens the Path, and it
    is connected with meditation, silent thinking, as when a man sits in
    quiet contemplation in the silence of the darkness. It is both the
    aim and the method.

    So do you see how this 'scattering' method creates an whole
    impression on the disparate elements of the human mind?
    I think it's lovely.

    Amara

    -- 
    ********************************************************************
    Amara Graps, PhD          email: amara@amara.com
    Computational Physics     vita:  ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt
    Multiplex Answers         URL:   http://www.amara.com/
    ********************************************************************
          "Trust in the Universe, but tie up your camels first."
                    (adaptation of a Sufi proverb)
    


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