094 Rambling through the world of ideas
This podcast is deliberately more experimental than the last few.
It features really old bits from a phone in show I used to do and an extended monologue about ideas and the importance of Eris Discordia as we head toward the technological singularity.
Music from www.zerofriendsrecordings.co.uk
Nick Margerrison - twitter here.
Comments
Well, no. I have no idea of what I am, but an idea I am not. I am here. Also in the odd moment of quiet between thoughts. Thoughts, ideas, memes come and go. I remain. I am their natural habitat.
I'm distrustful of the thoughts running around my head. I don't think of them as mine, particularly, let alone me. Memes are like viruses in a number of ways. They're tiny, simple critters. They're not alive, but reproduce by proxy of their living carriers. They may be symbionts, if their interests coincide with those of their hosts, or parasites if they don't. They can make their carriers damage or kill themselves for the benefit of their propagation. They can turn people into suicide bombers, or make them pay good money to wear a corporate logo across the chest.
Now here's an idea to try on for size: memes are higher up the food chain than us people. People kill and die for the voices in their heads all the time. I see the precarious state our world is in right now as a consequence of our memes taking us for a ride.
In early childhood, there is a phase when grammar has already arrived, but not yet the notion of truth or falsehood. Therefore, a story is true for being a story. That's OS install time. And boy, do the organized religions of the world know that. The memes that are loaded on your brain before your BS detector, the truth|falsehood meme, you will usually be stuck with for life whether they serve you or not. It takes considerable effort and courage and probably a drop of acid to debug the source code later in life.
Memes are not true or false. They are more or less successful in a Darwinistic sense. And more or less wholesome for their hosts, you and me. Some are good medicine. Like aforementioned truth|falsehood meme. And logic. It sifts out memes that don't add up. And the Maybe Logic and generalized model agnosticism that Saint Bob went on about. Simply not knowing and being cool with that.
It's good to sit and watch your thoughts go by. No need to run with them. You are, whether or not you think. You need do nothing about that.