Thread:User talk:WaitingforGodot/Crank linguistics/reply (26)

And frankly, that brings us back to the *other* topic bandied about often.

"can I ever, reasonably know what you mean by an 'thing', and what your experience of an 'idea' is."

To suggest that there are memes, as a "super thing", which shift and change over time, and that it can be measured in any meaningful way, would mean that each meme or idea must be precisely the same for the users - and we all know that's not the case. "Jesus, Lord and Savior" is, if you grant it, a "meme". But what it means is completely dependent on the person experiencing it (hearing, speaking or thinking it). In the study of Native American religions after contact, the core of my studies was how christian theology impacted native theology (and to a small extent, the other way round). But every single time you interview a person, and ask about Taku Skan Skan, "Grandfather", "great spirit", Wakan Tanka, the best you can do is work with that individual and try to make some kind of broad statements from 15 unique experiences.

Genes, actually blood guts and gore, type, are shared as almost exact copies, and it is the differences that can be codified and measured. So you can see gene shift, you can see transition and mark it. "This happened X years ago".

I'm rambling. sorry.

PS, "hypertext" was a huge "new way of thinking in the uni in 95, 96 area. "this is a web page set up, and you can make links to other things, which will revolutionize how we think, how we read, how we understand our world".  Hum... doesn't seem to have changed all that much, cept it feeds my ADD more.