Teams of Memes, bursting from the seams

Image courtesy of the googles.

Daniel Dennett’s From Bacteria to Bach and Back is a lengthy and winding journey. It is characterized (including by its publisher) as a general explanation of the evolution of minds and various peculiar mental functions, consciousness and language being the two most hotly discussed by philosophers, but there’s a better way to read it. As its best, the book is a tour of Dennett’s personal philosophical repertoire, illustrating how ideas from his books and papers fit together.

Dennett’s general theory of the development of genetics stems from his broad theory of memes, where a meme is any informational entity that can be transmitted and replicated. The rough idea is that minds are meme-machines in the way that organisms are gene-machines (in Dawkins’ analogy of the gene’s-eye-view). This is a fruitful analogy, in some respects, though I think it can and should draw some skepticism from readers. I’ll return to those worries later.

The basic building blocks of Dennett’s view are indicated by gestures and short explanations, which is a challenge since he’s spent so much time discussing and arguing for them elsewhere in his work. In any case, there are really two that it is important to understand.

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On the bright side, we have another reason to be best buddies with Saudi Arabia

OK, I’ve had enough. A resolution before the UN to condemn executions for apostasy, blasphemy, adultery, and consensual same-sex relations has passed, but Botswana, Burundi, Egypt, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, China, India, Iraq, Japan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates voted against it.

Oh. And one more. The United States voted against it, too, all for allowing countries to continue to execute people for being an atheist or a gay person. The United States. My country.

Can I have myself frozen and thawed out a century, or maybe a thousand years from now, when this madness is over?

(Damn it, no. That cryogenics stuff doesn’t work. We don’t have time machines, either. Technology, you have failed me again!)

Pressure rising…rising…rising

Good god, our president is in Puerto Rico and he opened his mouth, and this came out:

The bit at the beginning in which he jokes about having to spend money on their island, You have thrown our budget a little out of whack, because we’ve spent a lot of money on Puerto Rico and that’s fine, is bad enough. But listen to the whole thing, and what came next is even more nauseating.

…if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina, and you look at the tremendous…hundreds and hundreds of people that died, and if you look at what happened here with a storm that was totally overpowering, nobody has ever seen…what is your death count here? 17, 16, 16 people certified, 16 people versus in the thousands, you can be very proud of all of your people…

He’s comparing it to a real catastrophe like Katrina, and justifying his belittling attitude with a fucking body count. Hey, Puerto Rico, what are you complaining about? We spent money on you, and you’ve only got 16 dead (so far), compared to something really bad.

This president is going to kill me. Only question is whether it’s going to be explosive exanguination when my blood pressure blows the top of my head off, or nuclear apoplexy.

Do we need another reason to mourn Tom Petty?

He was thoughtful, and admitted when he was wrong.

The Confederate flag was the wallpaper of the South when I was a kid growing up in Gainesville, Florida. I always knew it had to do with the Civil War, but the South had adopted it as its logo. I was pretty ignorant of what it actually meant. It was on a flagpole in front of the courthouse and I often saw it in Western movies. I just honestly didn’t give it much thought, though I should have.

In 1985, I released an album called Southern Accents. It began as a concept record about the South, but the concept part slipped away probably 70 percent or so into the album. I just let it go, but the Confederate flag became part of the marketing for the tour. I wish I had given it more thought. It was a downright stupid thing to do.

He gives a great answer, and he doesn’t hesitate to reject all the awful things done under that flag.

Beyond the flag issue, we’re living in a time that I never thought we’d see. The way we’re losing black men and citizens in general is horrific. What’s going on in society is unforgivable. As a country, we should be more concerned with why the police are getting away with targeting black men and killing them for no reason. That’s a bigger issue than the flag. Years from now, people will look back on today and say, “You mean we privatized the prisons so there’s no profit unless the prison is full?” You’d think someone in kindergarten could figure out how stupid that is. We’re creating so many of our own problems.

He’s also a reminder that Southerners can be great and good people.

Actually, I do want to take your guns away

Not all of them, just most of them. And I’d like to have every gun registered, and sold in a regulated way, no more of this “gun show” shit. And I’d like to have serious restrictions on who can own guns — like, if you’ve been convicted of domestic violence, you don’t get to fondle guns anymore. Let’s ban all those assault rifles and any weapon that can be fired fast enough that you can murder 50 people in short order. We should also criminalize the NRA, because they’re already destructive enough to society.

I’m looking at this list of NRA contributions in the last election, and it’s kind of eye-opening. The only Democrat who received any donations from the NRA was Hillary Clinton, and it was more of a pathetic token tip.

Over $11 million to elect Trump, almost $20 million to oppose Clinton? Yeah, that $265 she got from the NRA is more of an insult than a donation. Then there’s this list of all the NRA blood money recipients who also sent fucking thoughts & prayers to the Las Vegas massacre victims.

By the way, that murderous asshole hauled 23 guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition to his hotel room. Shouldn’t owning that many weapons be indicative of a pathology that makes the person a danger to their community? This was a sick man — not sick in the sense of mentally ill, but sick in the sense of possessing a vicious, deadly criminality.

Oh, one more thing I want: repeal the second amendment. It’s been twisted far beyond its original intent, for those who have a religious devotion to the intent of the Founding Fathers, and its original intent was selfish, elitist, and racist, for those who don’t.

I suspect I won’t get any of my wishes met in my lifetime, though, because this country is run by plutocrats with millions of yahoos in their pockets.

Needs more panels. Maybe the artist ran out of red ink?

The evolutionist drifts, seemingly unknowing, from the safety of his herd.

The creationists pounce. Gabble gabble, they squawk. Jesus luvs you, gibber gabber!

The evolutionist cowers down, trembling. The creationists converge avidly on the isolated scientist.

But wait, what’s this? As the mob surrounds him, there is a cruel glint in the eye of their solitary victim — a slowly growing grin, exposing canines like needles, incisors like razors, long rows of jagged splintery back teeth. Claws emerge from their sheaths, and keep emerging, long as sabers. The evolutionist laughs a harsh, triumphant laugh and leaps up, whirling and gnashing and slashing. A half dozen creationists fall with deep gushing wounds, and the rest run away squealing.

Dinner time.

I don’t know why the cartoonist failed to include a few more panels that would have shown the fun stuff.

I get Catholic email, still

Any Catholics out there want to field this one? Despite my reputation, I’m not specifically anti-Catholic, just generally anti-religion, and these weirdly reactionary old school Catholics with their exceeding narrow interpretations of dogma just creep me out. This one comes from some guy who is absolutely convinced that the only true Christian is a Catholic, but at the same time, he argues that the current Pope is the anti-Christ, etc. I’m guessing he’s going to be lonely in heaven as the only True Catholic ever.

Hello

Pope Eugenius IV in His infallible Bull ‘Cantate Domino’ at the Council of Florence (1441) declared the Dogma: “The Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes, and teaches that none of those who are not within the Catholic Church can ever be partakers of eternal life, but are to go into the eternal fire “prepared for the devil and his angels” unless before the close of their lives they shall have entered into that Church.”

See the following:

https://www.youtube.com/user/mhfm1

Unless a person becomes a Catholic before they die: they will never save their soul.

Right now you are in rebellion against the Truth. According to Theological writings Americans (generally speaking) are hyper-allergic to Christianity, spirituality, and to spiritual truth; but if you managed to overcome that initial hurdle you could discover the beauty of Truth. You will need to say many Hail Marys though. “American identity” is just not compatible with Christianity. Followers of the USA think themselves an exception to the Law of Water Baptism and indeed to all the moral Laws of God for which there are no exceptions. Well you are not “exceptional” and this is what makes you angry at Christianity.

Sadly the USA flag like the Confederacy flag is an anti-Christian symbol whose tricolore (red, white, and blue) represents the slogan “liberty, equality, fraternity” according to the World Atlas website. That revolutionary masonic slogan has been repeatedly condemned as heresy by Christianity because it represents man against God and the overthrow of Christian order and Monarchy which uphold inequality. Millions of Christians were murdered under that slogan (which you venerate via the flag). To learn true compassion and fairness for everyone please see www.mhfm1.com which has many fantastic videos and articles. Many have converted from the American religion to the Christian Faith.

Sincerely
Alexander Emerick

I’ve never said a “hail mary” in my life, and couldn’t if I tried. There’s some words? Do I need to make any mystical gestures?

The bizarre claims about flags at the end is just the ludicrous icing on a fusty old cake made of cobwebs and rotting parchment. No thanks.

Has Christianity and Islam ever not exploited Africa?

Leo Igwe writes about the contribution of Christianity and Islam to modernizing Africa. Against the background of African superstitions, does adding European and Middle Eastern superstitions help?

You will be shocked to learn that no, it does not.

These two religions do not, in any way, constitute ‘modernising forces’ in Africa. They render it increasing difficult to question and challenge supernatural and paranormal claims. Christianity and Islam only add to the existing superstitions, substituting or rebranding magical narratives that already apply in African societies. The skeptics’ movement should make it part of its program to subject Christian and Islamic faith claims to critical evaluation, even at the risk of being accused of racism or islamophobia.

I don’t think bringing in Scientology or Buddhism would counter irrationality either. Let’s criticize all religions.

Just another American with guns

A terrible mass murder in Las Vegas: at least 20 people are dead when a man opened fire on a country western concert. The murderer was a local man named Stephen Paddock, who has since been killed by the police. Reports indicate that he was using some kind of automatic rifle, which you’d guess from the fact he killed a score and wounded at least a hundred, and that a search of his hotel room found even more weapons that he’d left behind. Also, the media is naturally calling him a “lone wolf”, since he’s white and so can’t possibly be a terrorist fed conspiracy theories.

So will this be the final straw that convinces the US to implement some kind of rational gun control?

No.

The New York Times is reporting that the death toll has reached 50.