Added a couple of links to the LINKS page. See if you can guess which ones.

Participated in a long discussion over at Something Awful a few days ago, concerning “The Worst Modern Religion”. To sum up the entire fourteen-page, two-hundred-post-plus shebang, I posted, on or around page nine, words to the effect that there are no arguments to be had, either for or against the the existence of God, which are not either self-referential, or self-contradictory, or both. In a weird inversion of the Schrodinger’s Cat problem, God neither exists nor doesn’t exist until we die.

Schrodinger’s God. Has a nice ring to it

The Meme Machine is turning out to be a damn fine read. What started out as a simple inquiry into the use of memetics in the manipulation of the Social/Information sphere is quickly branching out in several fascinating directions. The most compelling/disturbing option is probably the one which hints that memes, being essentially metaphors and therefore symbols, may exist at any point up and down the spectrum of consciousness (cf. Ken Wilber). Therefore it is possible that memetics could operate on the level of the Jungian Archetype/racial memory, with the very real effect that a meme, a product of the information sphere, could directly affect the physical body of the recipient. This idea was used to some effect in Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson), and may be witnessed in the occasional health-destroying nervous breakdowns of those who allow conscious mental stress to bleed over into unconscious/autonomous biological systems.

The flip side of this is the use of memes and memeplexes (memeplexi?) to essentially hard-wire behavior into individuals or groups. A suitable subtle, deep-reaching meme could cause changes in behavior which lead to changed in physical ability, either enhancements or regressions. While these changes would obviously not happen at the genetic level, they could easily be passed as viral information from generation to generation. Couple this to a shift in consensual reality and something resembling a cult may arise.

The use of memetics in conjunction with a deep understanding of levels of psychology could therefore be extremely powerful. One could develop the ability to directly access and manipulate the archetypal/symbolic core of a society.

Frightening

Now I need to grab yet another book:The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. I am rapidly running out of room at my desk.