71620.3203@CompuServe.COM (Elan Moritz) (10/16/90)
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ANNOUNCEMENT and CALL for PAPERS
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for
VOLUME 2
of the
JOURNAL of IDEAS
The first issue of the Journal of Ideas
was recently published. Below are the
introduction to the Journal and
abstracts of papers in the first issue.
The Journal of Ideas is aiming at publishing
papers in its relevant areas within 3-6 months of
receipt of papers.
Regular papers and proposals for invited papers
are welcome and should be addressed to:
Dr. Elan Moritz, Editor
Journal of Ideas,
The Institute for Memetic Research, Inc.
P. O. Box 16327
Panama City, Florida 32406- 1327
or
moritz@well.bitnet
moritz@well.sf.ca.us.bitnet
or via internet
moritz@well.sf.ca.us
or
71620.3203@compuserve.com
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personal subscriptions (in the U.S) are available
at $46 year (includes Volume 1 #1 described below
and 4 issues of Volume 2 to appear in 1991).
limited copies of the first issue described below
are available for $20.
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Journal of Ideas
The Journal of Ideas is an archival forum for discussion of existing
and original ideas and concepts. Its purpose is to circulate and
nurture inquiry that focuses attention on the evolution and spread of
ideas, on the process of discovery as well as the creative process,
and on biological and electronic implementations of idea/knowledge
generation and processing.
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Elan Moritz Editor
Patricia S. Smith Managing Editor
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Editorial Advisory Board
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R. Wilburn Clouse
Department of Educational Leadership, Vanderbilt University
Peter A. Kiss
Sentar, Inc., Hunstville, Alabama
Matthew Witten
Center for High Performance Computing, University of Texas at Austin
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The Journal of Ideas, ISSN 1049-6335, is published quarterly by the
Institute for Memetic Research, Inc. P. O. Box 16327, Panama City
Florida 32406-1327. Copyright [(c)] 1990 by the Institute for Memetic
Research, Inc.
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Welcome to the Journal of Ideas
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In 1608 Hans Lippershey (aka Lippersheim) placed one spectacle
lens in front of another and pointed this configuration at a distant
building. To his amazement he noticed that the building top appeared
much closer and larger than he could see before; furthermore, he
could see the details of the building top quite clearly. On October
2, 1608 he offered this device (which he called 'looker') to the
Estates of Holland for 900 florins. Lippershey's looker is known
nowadays as a telescope. Through Jacques Bovedere of Paris, the
telescope was made known to Galileo Galilei. Galileo, in turn,
constructed his own telescope and pointed it towards the moon,
Jupiter, and other celestial objects. Galileo's discoveries of the
irregular surface of the moon, sunspots on the sun, moons of Jupiter,
and a host of other unexpected astronomical phenomena, challenged the
Ptolmeic astronomical theories and the official views of man's
position in the universe. Galileo's observations ultimately led to
what we now recognize as modern science while Galileo himself was
subjected to continuing house arrest.
On reviewing the fascinating sequence of events leading to
Galileo's discoveries, one immediately recognizes the simple two lens
experiment, conducted by Lippershey, as the singular most important
event for modern astronomy, and perhaps for modern science. This is
so because it is the one event that provided a simple tool which
generated uncontestable direct evidence about nature and the
universe. It was the telescope that provided data supporting or
refuting systems of beliefs held for many centuries.
A number of natural questions arise. Why did Lippershey place
the one lens in front of the other at the time that he did? Where did
that idea come from? If we reflect upon these questions and bring
into the foreground the fact that spectacle lenses were known for
over three centuries (before Lippershey) and that the magnifying
effects of glass and water-filled glass spheres were known for over
1300 years, another question comes to mind. Why did it take as long
as it did to think of and do Lippershey's experiment?
Events such as Lippershey's invention of the telescope, and
Galileo's use of the telescope to discover craters on the moon, point
to a class of underlying phenomena that we all participate in
continuously, namely the awareness, development, use and propagation
of ideas. Until very recently, attempts to understand the mechanics
and dynamics of 'ideas' (as entities by themselves) have been
limited to philosophical, sociological and perhaps psychological
speculations. Almost all discussions of 'ideas' revolve about truth
values (i.e. true/false) of particular ideas, their meaning and their
impact (i.e., how many people subscribe to an idea or a collection of
ideas and what did they do as result of believing that particular
idea). To date, little discussion has taken place on objective,
quantitative aspects of 'ideas' and 'idea-dynamics'.
This journal, The Journal of Ideas, is being launched to
stimulate thinking about the very nature of 'ideas' as rigorously
quantifiable objects. The Journal aims to provide a forum for
disciplined presentation of formal results in an archival scholarly
format. Basically, it is our view that ideas are discrete objects
that can combine, mutate, spread, and die, much like the many living
biological entities we are familiar with.
In this issue we have assembled a collection of invited papers
by distinguished investigators. J. T. Bonner (Princeton University,
author of "The Evolution of Culture in Animals") presents an analysis
of cultural evolution from a biological point of view. Bonner
discusses cultural evolution in terms of selection of units of
behavioral information, individual memory, and collective memory of
the species. He argues that cultural changes (in short time spans)
rival genetically derived changes that take hundreds of millions of
years. D. Brooks (University of Toronto, co-author of "Evolution as
Entropy") and D. McLennan extend the unified theory of biology which
is based on entropy analysis of biological systems as informational
systems. Their unified theory of biological evolution argues for
production of historically constrained, spontaneously stable, complex
structures and hierachies. S. Salthe (Brooklyn College, author of
"Evolving Hierarchical Systems" and "Complexity and Change in
Biology") presents a related biological-entropy based approach to
infodynamics - the study of uncertainties. Salthe's framework allows
discussion of external (historical) influences on dissipative
structures and prediction of the effects of stored information. H.
K. Henson (first president of the L-5 society and an activist in
national space policy) and A. Lucas present a discussion of evolution
and creationism in the context of memes (a particular category of
ideas). Their paper explores the
question of why humans have beliefs at all and raises the intriguing
hypothesis that there may exist physical meme receptor sites with
subtantial stability. R. Wiley (author of the book "BioBalance: The
Acid/Alkaline Solution To The Food-Mood-Health Puzzle") presents a
rigorous theory for the metabolic roots of consciousness that tracks
metabolic inputs leading to correlations with metabolic and cognitive
functions and dysfunctions. An interesting, and potentially highly
significant aspect of R. Wiley's theory is the use of the relative
acidity/alkalinity of venous plasma pH as the synoptic indicator of
metabolic health and consequently mental/functional health. General
metabolite reaction-diffusion equations, specializing to hermitian
interactions are presented. E. Moritz introduces a rigorous
foundation for memetic science. Moritz's paper provides a review of
the major historical theories of ideas with attention to contemporary
work of quantitative culture theorists of the past two decades. In
addition to a wealth of key references, Moritz establishes a firm
basis for a calculational science of ideas based on intrinsic and
extrinsic properties of memes.
The papers collected in this issue, while initially appearing as
a diverse ensemble, in fact touch on various aspects that we hope to
bring together in the Journal. Ideas and language appear to be
present in a developed form only in humans. They are phenotypic
artifacts of the state of cognitive abilities achieved by humans as a
result of a biologically and culturally adaptive evolution. We hope
these papers serve as a basis for and stimulate principled discussion
for a comprehensive science that includes these diverse aspects.
Since the topic of a science of ideas (as differentiated from
philosophy) is new and uncharted, we expect that a variety of points
of view and approaches will be taken. We anticipate that some topics
and papers will generate heated discussions, as well as provide
substantive advances in areas such as cognitive sciences, psychology,
biology, sociology, artificial intelligence, artificial life,
economics, computational linguistics, knowledge engineering, and a
host of existing and new interdisciplinary fields.
We stress that the Journal and its publisher will maintain the
principle of scientific objectivity regarding publications.
Accordingly, all views expressed in the Journal are solely those of
the author(s) of individual papers. Correspondence pertaining to
individual author's positions should be addressed to the relevant
author.
We encourage individuals who have interests in the topic of the
science of ideas to submit papers for publication in this journal;
while no standards can be set on a new science, it is expected that
papers published in JoI will be of high professional quality. Papers
submitted will be reviewed for content, technical accuracy, and
novelty. We encourage readers to let their acquaintances know about
the Journal as both a source of new information and a forum for
discussion.
Judging from correspondence received, and the great interest
expressed, we are confident that many new and useful ideas will be
presented here, and that JoI will act as a catalyst for discovering
how ideas interact with other ideas and how the process of creativity
can be made more fruitful and accessible. In particular, we see an
emerging impact of this area on disciplines that require
understanding of knowledge representation and dynamics, and on
electronic based memes (such as electronic viruses, bacteria and
worms), artificial intelligence, and genetic algorithms. We also see
the distinct potential for memetic science (the science of ideas) to
shed light on neural structures and to call attention to manditory
architectures in the human brain (which would be required to support
idea-processing and dynamics). It is distinctly possible that
results obtained here will shed light on mental functions and
dysfunctions such as schizophrenia.
Ultimately, we look forward to being able to explain in detail
why it took 300 years to go from a single spectacle lens to the two
lens telescope, and to use the science of ideas, memetic science, the
same way molecular biologists are able to piece together DNA and RNA
molecules to create new structures. We hope that in the process, we
will learn how to look at ideas that already exist and to piece them
together effectively, so that what would otherwise take centuries,
will be accomplished in years.
Elan Moritz, Editor
Patricia S. Smith, Managing Editor
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MEMETIC SCIENCE: I - GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Elan Moritz
The Institute For Memetic Research
P.O. Box 16327, Panama City, Florida 32406
Received April 23, 1990
Abstract. Memetic Science is the name of a new field that deals with
the quantitative analysis of cultural transfer. The units of cultural
transfer are entities called "memes". In a nutshell, memes are to
cultural and mental constructs as genes are to biological organisms.
Examples of memes are ideas, tunes, fashions, and virtually any
cultural and behavioral unit that gets copied with a certain degree
of fidelity. It is argued that the understanding of memes is of
similar importance and consequence as the understanding of processes
involving DNA and RNA in molecular biology. This paper presents a
rigorous foundation for discussion of memes and approaches to
quantifying relevant aspects of meme genesis, interaction, mutation,
growth, death and spreading processes. It is also argued in this
paper that recombinant memetics is possible in complete analogy to
recombinant DNA / genetic engineering. Special attention is paid to
memes in written modern English. KEYWORDS: meme, replicator,
language, culture, copy, idea, evolution, computer, virus, knowledge,
artificial intelligence, brain, mind.
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CULTURAL EVOLUTION: A BIOLOGIST'S VIEW
John Tyler Bonner
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544-1003
Received June 26, 1990
Abstract. Culture is defined here as information transmitted from one
individual to another by behavioral means. The evolution of culture
is discussed in terms of selection of units of behavioral information
defined as memes. The relationships of genes, memes, behavior and
the role of individual and collective memory in cultural evolution
are explored. Changes obtained via human cultural evolution are
comparable in magnitude to changes resulting from millions of years
of genetical evolution. KEYWORDS: behavior, culture, genes,
evolution, memes, memory.
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SEARCHING FOR A GENERAL THEORY OF BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION
Daniel R. Brooks and Deborah A. McLennan
Department of Zoology
University of Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A1, Canada
Received July 9, 1990
Abstract. One approach to finding a unified theory of biology stems
from perceptions that (1) the direction of time and history are
important aspects of biological systems, (2) biological systems are
highly non-linear, (3) biological systems are far from equilibrium,
and that the historically-constrained nonequilibrium behavior of
biological systems produces (4) hierarchical organization and (5)
steady states that may act as local equilibria to such an extent that
natural selection is expected to play an important role in explaining
much of their short-term (micro-) evolutionary behavior. Internal
production rules in biological systems require outside energy but are
also highly insensitive to the conditions of the external environment
from which the energy comes. This leads to the production of
historically constrained, spontaneously stable, complex structure.
Because the production rules are physically encoded in the structure
of the system, biological systems are physical information systems,
and their expected behavior over time follows a general entropic
dynamic. The autonomy of the production rules leads to an
explanation for the reality of natural selection that does not rely
on analogy with human economic theory. The historical nature of the
elements of diversity at any given time leads to an expectation that
the details of responses to external evolutionary forces (such as
natural selection, competition, geological changes) will be highly
individualized. Hence, evolutionary regularities will tend to be
highly generalized (macroevolutionary) or statistical in nature.
KEYWORDS: evolution, entropy, hierarchical organization, production
rules, intropy, enformation.
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THE METABOLIC ROOTS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Rudolf A. Wiley
BioBalance Services
P.O. Box 16376, Panama City, Florida 32406
Received May 18, 1990
Abstract. Clinical research dealing with metabolic dysfunctions
indicates that the evolution of disorders commonly referred to as
psychogenic, mental, behavioral and stress-related is governed
predominantly by intermediary metabolic activity. These
dysfunctions, characterized by weak or poorly coupled interactions
within Kreb's cycle and the Embden-Meyerhoff pathways, can be
nutritionally countereffected thereby limiting and often eliminating
the extent to which they are cognitively, affectively and
behaviorally articulated. This research suggests that genetic
factors and nutritional input are primary determinants of
psychometabolic pathology. The implications of this research are
profound, extend far beyond the domains of clinical psychology and
medicine, and may go on to impact disciplines as diverse as
psycholinguistics, sociobiology, criminology, cultural anthropology
and zoology to mention only a few.
The status of clinical research regarding the role of
intermediary metabolism in shaping cognitive
performance is reviewed in this article. A generic mathematical
formalism of metabolic activity is developed, and a metric mapping
metabolic activity into cognitive activity is proposed and discussed.
KEYWORDS: metabolism, zeitgebers, psychopathology, cognitive
function, redundancy, consciousness, nutrition.
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SKETCH OF A LOGICAL DEMONSTRATION THAT THE GLOBAL
INFORMATION CAPACITY OF A MACROSCOPIC SYSTEM MUST
BEHAVE ENTROPICALLY WHEN VIEWED INTERNALLY
S. N. Salthe
Department of Biology
Brooklyn College, CUNY, Brooklyn, New York 11210
Received by July 17, 1990
Abstract. This paper attempts to sketch out in what way macroscopic
information must be entropic. If this can be shown, a larger
science, of infodynamics - the study of uncertainties, can subsume
thermodynamics and information theory. It is crucial for these
purposes that a finite observer be stipulated for all informational
exchanges, and, in order to achieve the desired result, that observer
must be located inside the supersystem that contains the object
systems it interprets. KEYWORDS: dissipative structures, hierarchy,
semiotics, uncertainty.
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MEMES AND CREATIONISM
H. Keith Henson and Arel Lucas
1794 Cardel Way, San Jose, CA 95124
(hkhenson@CUP.portal.com)
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Received April 14, 1990
Abstract. This paper discusses the question of creationism and
evolution theory in the context of memes. Several key questions are
raised including the questions of why humans have beliefs at all,
and why does belief in evolution excite substantial opposition. The
authors address the competition of memes in the meme pool and propose
the existence of meme 'receptor sites' responsible for strong
maintenance of religious beliefs. KEYWORDS: memes, creationism,
evolution, learning, games, receptor-sites.
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Instructions for Contributors
The key to our era, the Information Age, is knowledge generation
and manipulation. A fundamental aspect of knowledge generation is
the creation and combination of new ideas. In December 1989, The
Institute for Memetic Research Inc. was formed to pursue the study
of and dissemination of knowledge in the area of idea formation and
spread. This journal, the Journal of Ideas, was established for
archiving and disseminating research and knowledge in this area. You
and your organization are invited to participate as authors, readers,
referees and subscribers in this enterprise.
Prospective contributors are urged to read the introductory
discussion of memes in the article "Memetic Science: I - General
Introduction," [J. of Ideas, Volume 1, pp. 3-23, 1990] wherein one
can find the basic concepts and references that provide a starting
context for research in the science of ideas, and the editorial
"Welcome to the Journal of Ideas," [J. of Ideas, Volume 1, pp 1-2,
1990].
Purpose
It is an intention of the IMR and the Journal to provide a forum
for advancing novel, speculative and perhaps controversial ideas with
care to avoid excessive peer restrictions. Attention to quality,
however, will be given through careful review of technical accuracy,
novelty, and content. This approach intends to stimulate generation
and archival of 'low probability of occurrence' ideas that otherwise
might not be expressed in a public forum. While some may regard this
as a means for 'thumb-printing' or establishing precedence to new
ideas, the IMR will strongly encourage relevant papers to be
submitted in order that the Journal constitute a literal 'laboratory
for meme evolution'. While this policy allows for substantial
freedoms, prospective authors must keep in mind that as an archival
journal, the Journal of Ideas can serve to record errors as well as
genuine advances.
The target audience of this journal is intended to be as wide as
possible within the lay and scholarly communities and will clearly be
of a multi-disciplinary nature. With this audience in mind, authors
are encouraged to use terminology that is easily accessible, to
define specialized jargon carefully, and to avoid complicated
mathematical derivations.
Length and Charges
Typically, a contributed paper should not exceed eight journal
pages. Invited papers are targeted to be sixteen pages or less. In
special cases discussion to support papers may require a significant
amount of space. In this case, authors are requested to correspond
with the Institute concerning space availability, and publication of
a special issue. To defray costs of publication, payment of $125 per
page is required for contributed papers prior to publication. Payment
of page charges entitles authors to 100 free reprints of their
article. Page charges will be waived for invited papers. Invited
authors will receive 25 reprints gratis. To estimate length, use the
figure of 6000 characters (including spaces) per journal page.
Manuscript Preparation
The Journal of Ideas will be published with a nominal page size
of 8 1/2 " x 11". Manuscripts may be submitted in one of the
following modes:
1. Via e-mail sent to one of the following addresses, INTERNET:
71620.3203@compuserve.com , or moritz@well.sf.ca.us , or via BITNET
(moritz@well.sf.ca.us.bitnet).
2. Via regular mail. If possible, include a copy of the text in ASCII
format on MS-DOS IBM Compatible 360K, 5 1/4" or 1.44M , 3 1/2"
diskettes.
In all cases, please send two paper copies to Patricia S. Smith,
Managing Editor, Journal of Ideas, The Institute for Memetic
Research, P.O. Box 16327, Panama City, Florida 32406-1327. Submitted
manuscripts should be neatly typed on 8 1/2 x 11 paper using double
spacing. All unusual symbols should be carefully defined.
References or bibliographies should be prepared and used in a
consistent manner throughout the manuscript. Footnotes will be
treated as references. Authors are encouraged to use standard formats
such as the Chicago Manual of Style, or guidelines of professional
society journals such as those issued by the ACM, the IEEE, the
American Mathematical Society, or the American Institute of Physics.
Figures will be scanned in using an optical scanner, they should
be prepared using high quality, high contrast ink and should not
exceed 3 inches in width and 4 inches in height.
Copyright Transfer
Transfer of copyright is required prior to publication. Authors
of accepted papers will receive a Journal of Ideas copyright
transfer form with notification of acceptance.
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+ please post on local bulletin +
+ boards and news groups +
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++++++++++++++ thank you, e.m. ++++