Key

My words in regular paragraph text like this

Chris's words in H5, redefined by a page level style command to be dark blue. Chris's messages in boxes like this.

My later comments like this, right aligned.

Sounds interesting.

You wanna try making a new (altered) religion?

After checking over you website and reading some of your comments on usenet, I felt I just could not resist dropping you an email. I find myself in agreement with all your comments on your website that I have read so far. I'm not sure if this is because we think alike, or because you have designed them as particularly effective killer memes, barbed with powerful hooks. Anyway, I was wondering what part of England you like in? And also, due to similar ideologies, I thought it might be interesting to get into a few discussions (with a hint of argument) on some of the "important" topics. Choose your subject, race, religion, genetics, I'll match you on anyone you want.

Thanks for taking the time to read this email, and please try to find the time to respond,

Chris

Hmmm, interesting:

"Why recycle Glass? The raw materials are cheap and the biggest cost is energy, which is required for both new and recycled glass. Is this just a way for middle class people to subsidize the raw materials costs of the glass makers? Does anybody else benefit?"

I hadn't thought of that. I suppose we all get caught up in the whole "eco-friendly save the world" gambit that this is not always considered. What exactly goes into glass (apart from sand), perhaps modern glass makers add some chemical or something that is more finite?

"What proportion of websites exist because, well ,you've got to have a website, haven't you?"

I think the real reason for most websites is the basic need to communicate. I feel very nervous about stating that the need to communicate is one of these definite basic things, but I have a good feeling its hardwired into the Homo sapiens blue prints somewhere.

I have a website, so do a lot of my friends. You ask them why and the answers are usually unconvincing.

"Why are large shops called stores, when storing goods is the antithesis of their function?"

A word that has spread from america, where the word store=shop.

Damn those American, word flooding films. Anyone ever heard someone in Britain start quoting their rights from the US constitution?

"Why do people constantly use the words "where" and "when" the wrong way round? For example, "the part in the film where.", as a film is fundamentally a chronological series of images the word when seems far more suitable."

See, spacetime is hardly a new idea. Our brains easily view time as a dimension in which things exist, not just an abstract concept. Then again, maybe that is extracting just a bit too much from a common mistake ;p

"Do you consider that you have a body or you are a body? If you say you have a body, you have a mind, you have a soul what are you? And what were you before?"

woohoo, great question. hmm, I define my self identity as the group of chemical reactions and electrical signals whizzing about in my brain. If I were to have everything from the neck down amputated, I would still be me. I take the mind to be the complete package, the brain is the hardware. Combine this with the software and you get a mind. What you call this software is irrelevant, although I would not use the word soul due to the religious/immortal connotations which are just bizzare.

"Why are there seven days in a week? I know it comes from the Babylonians but that is no answer. Why is a seven day week universal? What is a week anyway?"

Tell me when you know.

"Is there any word for toilet/lavatory that is not a euphemism? All the toilet words seem to come from words for bathroom. My pocket dictionary sends you round in circles between water closet (a small room with water in it), toilet (the act of washing) and lavatory (from the Latin for bathroom)."

Bog, Crapper, loo, john (shudder, americanism), done?

In response to all the questions about "who made this car law that says....." Most of those laws (I would guess) were probably written back in the days when the aristocracy were the only ones who had cars. House of Lords passes the laws, bah, there you go, corruption at its finest.

"Why is Humpty Dumpty always shown as an egg? There is nothing in the rhyme about eggs."

Brilliance, pure brilliance.

"Why do gay men sound like gay men? This is one of the biggest questions that has ever bugged me. Many gay men sound gay or camp. Is this simply mimicry? Do boys who sound as if they are gay attract the attention of gay men? Many male rape victims enjoy the experience physically and so get to think they must be gay, whereas they just happen to have an anus and prostate, which are all you need to enjoy sodomy fully. No doubt this also happens in cases that are less than rape but are still exploitative. Are gays born sounding gay? Do they pick up the clues around them and copy those men who appear to be like them? Or do some boys just attract the wrong kind of attention because of the way they happen to speak. I knew a boy who sounded as camp as a row of little pink tents when he was only 12, surely he could not have picked it up from hanging around in gay bars. I suspect the truth is much more complicated than any of these suggestions."

If being gay is genetic, the answer could be that the gene for a camp voice tags along with the gay one. If not, then... Why do people from northern England speak like northerners? Are they born this way? Also, do gay people from other countries (example: Nigeria, Japan) speak with the same kind of voice?

"Who first decided that every dying child deserves to go to Disneyland? The best chance I have of a Florida holiday is for one of my children to catch an incurable disease. I hate disease, especially in children, it puts me off going to Disneyland, the new Lourdes."

Victims are better people. I think its one of the Ten Media Commandments.

"Why is ancient eastern "traditional knowledge" supposedly superior to modern western science? If it is that good how come we took so long to catch on? Tiger penis soup and throwing salt about the place, what a load of cobblers."

Hmmm, for a long time (from my POV), I considered anything that did not carry a seal of approval from Newton or Einstein as, for want of a more approriate word, bullshit. More recently, I have at least allowed the possibility that there may be some wisdom contained within these "ancient sciences". For example, Feng Shui, its sounds like crap at first sight, but it may play on some of the subtleties of the human mind.

Obviously our brains respond to our environments, so arranging them in certain ways may help our brain to work in slightly different ways. This knowledge may have been discovered accidentally, then been preserved as the meme has intrinsic survival value. If your army are all happy, and clear thinking, you can kick the crap out of the other guys better. (thinking as an ancient chinese warlord ;)

"Can anybody confirm or shoot-down the story that Spanish pronunciation was changed because a King had a lisp? I must have heard it on somebody else's car radio or something but it made a big impression on me. Spanish in Latin America is spoken with the correct, original pronunciation, Ibiza would rhyme with pizza, espania not ethpania. Whereas in Spain they all thpeak with a lithp, so as not to upthet the feelinth of the King. It is such a great story I want it to be true; who was the King?"

Sounds like an urban myth meme to me.

"Why is there no Music Of White Origin award ceremony?"

No, that would be racist. On the other hand, any attempt to stop a music of black origin ceremoney would be racist. Black people are not racists. Only white people are. gah.

"When aliens finally make contact with us will they think like men, women, computers or something altogether different?"

They will be too busy making peace settlements with the ants to worry about us.

Hmmm, that should get this party started, so to speak.

Ants

Ants have been around for far longer than we have. They have been building cities, performing agriculture, waging wars on rival ant species and termites, improvising weapons to use against their enemies and communicating through pheromones working almost as if all ants in a colony were a single mind.

Humans have achieved more, by human standards. As to what the aliens would be, well, parallel evolution would suggest they would not be far wrong from the Homo sapiens design, assuming they lived in some kind of similar environment.

But then again, there is just as much chance that alien life will be a rock.

None of my current websites are particularly interesting or applicable, but here they are: www.backwardscrap.co.uk me and a friend, small comedy site www.krash.org.uk a group of hackers that I talk to a lot As to my personal profile, English, obviously, as taken from some of my answers. Male, yes, the name Chris is a big hint, although not conclusive. 15-30, its always going to be a good bet, and this time its payed of, I'm 18. (Oh, and yes, I did read your advice page)

I didn't mean to disparage your answer about ants. I think they are quite remarkable but they are certainly not intelligent. They are very well adapted to their environment.

This has set me off on a tangent, "survival of the fittest" is a very common phrase but I know that most people misinterpret it. Fit means fitted to the environment, in this sense of the word the opposite is not unfit but MISFIT. If you didn't already know that then you could drop it into conversation, it will help your genetic fitness, or put another way, increase your chances of getting laid. :-)

I think that the parallel evolution argument can be taken too far. I don't think for one moment that all aliens are humanoid. I also think that the vast majority of aliens will be unintelligent, just like 99.99999% of Earth's species. I think that intelligence will be extremely rare in the Universe, probably to the point where the chances of meeting or interacting with an alien intelligence are practically nil. The reason I think this is that the evidence that intelligence is a great asset to an animal is not really there. Sharks and crocodiles have been around for hundreds of millions of years and have not increased their intelligence to the point that you would ever consider then the slightest bit smart, not one species of 'em.

Are you a student? If so at what stage. If you have any spare time to read I could suggest some mind expanding stuff. If you are a student you might have had enough of reading lists.

I am in the business of trying to spread my ideas as far and wide as I can. Do you know any good websites out there run by like minded people who might like to trade links with me? Just a thought. Is there anything else on my site that sets you off, you mentioned race before, any theories you want to air?

Keep the wonder, lose the faith,

Martin

Ants and sentience

I got in an arguement with sorts with one of my friends recently before writing that email. In the end we agreed to disagree. It is my opinion that sentience is not needed for civilization, as my example I gave the ants. In response to this, he said that ants are not sentient, so they cannot have civilization. That brought the conversation into a kind of loop.

I like the idea to describe getting laid as helping my genetic fitness.

We would be more likely to encounter an intelligent [alien] species than the alternative. Unless we go and find them, the only exception to this that I can think of would be some form of space-dwelling creature that is attracted to radio waves. Then again, this kind of creature would not be a very long lived one. Stars, ahem.

Race

Normally with the topic of race you must be very careful to avoid the anti-racist backlash. But seeing as though neither of us are racist, we can ignore all that rubbish and look at the situation scientifically. Alarm bells may be ringing, you thinking I am going to try and justify racism with science. I'm not.

Plants can be grouped into species, because all members of species are genetically identical. That is the way I think it should be done. but it is not, they are categorised by what they look like and what they do. By my definition. Each animal is a species of one. I am a different species to you, and everyone else, but we are very similar. I am most similar to family, but we are still different.

That is point one. For point two, I want to try and explain racism.

In evolutionary terms, it is in the best interest of our genes to preserve those humans that are most similar, and destroy (eek, this sounds bad), those which are most different. All humans compete for similar resources and sexual partners, but our genetic puppeteers would have us kill those who are not similar for their own benefit. A battle of gene against meme here methinks.

I just had an interesting idea. I want you to put one of those little form surveys on your site with the following questions. Up to you of course, but I think it would be interesting.

Belief?

o Atheist o Religious o Not sure

Age?

o 0-16 o 17-24 o 25-39 o 40-59 o 60+

What comes next? 1,1,2,3,5,8,?

o 12 o 13 o 14 o 15

Which of these is the odd one out?

o Green o Red o Blue o Yellow

Just as you have theorised that there are differences in IQ between races, I wonder if the same is true among religious categories. Do not give this as the reason for the survey though. BTW, what is your occupation?

You could also find black genii (plural of genius maybe, probably geniuses) and asian idiots, but you still put forward the idea that asians are generally more intelligent. I'm not talking absolutes, I'm suggesting subtle trends. I would be interested to know if the average IQ of a believer is less than that of an atheist. I kind of hope so.

Don't worry, I see this point. [dogs-races-breeds] It has already been debated to extinction in my mind before now.

Genes' eye view

It is not an inverted view. There are many agendas at work. None of them are real agendas, none of the things have desires. This includes the individual. The agenda of the gene, it wants to survive and replicate. (do not pick up on the word want, I know it is wrong, but it is quicker than explaining the subtleties of evolution in each sentence) The agenda of the individual, it may think it wants to survive and replicate. but maybe it is the genes telling him through hardwired instincts that he wants to survive and replicate. The group/society, this one is so mixed up with memetics, I will not get into it, far too complex. It deserves a book, or three.

As for genes having no purpose. This puts them alongside everything else in the universe, including you.

Reading list, I have read the first three.

The human condition sounds interesting. Is the queen book about ants? A good ant book is called "Empire of the Ants".

I have consumed the video collection of the Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy, and read a few snippets of the books. I suggest everything by Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash, Zodiac, The Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon) In addition "The Code Book" by someone else, if you like cryptography.

Hmmm, how old are you? Degree as perishable? elaborate. Personally I have little ambition concerning working for other people.

It is easy to want to be part of a one world government, but once you see how very different other nation's cultures and values are, we would have to compromise too much. Britain has a good set of values, and the rights of the individual are fiercly protected.

Pollinated? Me?

The legacy is not yours. The memes did not start with you and will not finish with you. Long after you have decayed, the nasty little memes will still be abusing the minds of men to spread. Don't let the memes control you. And I am not pollinated, I believe there is a certain two way communication here. Also, I have good security :) (in my brain that is) (basically, I consider everything everyone says is horse shit until proven otherwise.)

I just enjoy anthropomorphising memes. If it did have a purpose, it probably would be sinister :)

>You are right when you suggest that only human things have a purpose.

I did not say that. I said that nothing has a purpose. There is no divine plan. Your actions are not important, and it is only neurones and instincts tricking your conscious into think they are important so that you will do them.

Hmmm, perhaps. I cannot speak for others, but when I anthropomorphise, it is just as a convenient analogy. For example, if I say.. "The Virus wants you to sneeze", what I mean is "Those virii that do not make you sneeze do not spread as well as those that do.. Over time, and through evolution, the genes of the 'make-you-sneeze-virii' will be more successful and propagate better. Those non-sneeze-virii will have poor methods of transmission, and will likely become extinct at some point." Its just easier to say that the virus wants you to sneeze. As long as the analogy is concuss, and not literal, then it is a more efficient means of conveying our ideas about memes and genes.

I have not read [The Meme Machine] yet. But, I believe that if you took two people and put them in the middle of no-where, with no-one to communicate else with, then they would find a simple way to communicate. Certain things are hard-coded into our brains, and do not rely on memetics. For instance, taking your hand out of boiling water is not a meme, you just do it automatically. You don't have to be told that water is hot, or see anyone else have a similar experience. Its pre-programmed into our brains via genetics, not memetics.

Because of this, I would think that memes did not creat the minds. But minds are hardwired to facilitate memes.

Understood. [meme garden analogy] This raises an interesting question. Just as farmers have artificially selected their livestock, and affected the evolution of the livestock. Perhaps those who are "meme-aware" artificially affect the evolution of their memes. Or perhaps it is more like the story of the dog, who has evolved to take advantage of humans. Perhaps some memes will evolve to exploit any weaknesses in our "meme selecting process".

Ants

Yeah, I love ants. They are so different to people, but they are so complicated. I can't think of anything else that is so different and so complicated as ants.

I dont think I'll bother. [The Human Condition] This does not sound very good.

chill! From memory, I think you said 38, although I was checking just in case you had aged since the time of writing.

Hmmm, seems to me like a certain brand of memes have infected you. A brand that tell you that it is good for you to spread any meme that you agree with or like. Perhaps you should analyse why you actually run the website?

Like the title? Why are precious stones precious?

Because they are few in number.

Don't mess with nature and expect nothing to happen. [Ants, again!]

Excellent. Excellent.

That's why I like ants. Within a day, the two rival nests had warred on each other, and the better adapted (or more numerous or whatever) had won. If it was any other species (apart from perhaps humans) they would have tried to co-exist and compete, eventually the better one would win the evolutionary race, but with ants, they just massacre the entire population of the rival nest.

Excellent.

btw- I am off to America soon for a few months, so the emails will run dry some time in the close future.