Has it really been almost two weeks?
I guess I'm really bad at keeping with the things I'd like to be doing daily. I've realized recently that I'm really bad at remembering what happened at a given time any more. I'm so easily distracted and constantly thinking about so many different things, and different sorts of things, that my mind has become very disorganized.
What I can say is that I've now read Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene. It isn't a very good book, but seems like an important one in its own way. I think that one of the main reasons I wanted to read it is because of my curiosity about "memes," something that a lot of people like to talk about these days but most people don't seem to really understand. Also, I realized that I do not have a very firm grasp of evolutionary theory because of my upbringing. At some point I became aware of the idea, but never really learned anything about evolutionary theory until I took an introductory biology class like three semesters ago. I don't really think this is necessarily a good book to be introduced to evolutionary theory, but the combined need to learn about evolution and read the book that coined the term "meme" lead me to read it -- plus a recommendation from a friend.
There are other books I'd like to read on the topic, or relavent to the topic, that I probably won't get around to for money purposes and because there are a pretty good pile of them and I am not particularly literate -- I had to force myself to make it through two chapters each day. I read slowly and my brain goes into tangents in all sorts of directions, mixing and matching different topics, so it's very difficult for me to be focused. I wonder sometimes if I have developed some sort of attention deficit disorder or something similar, but maybe I should just spend more time laying down and staring into space so as to let my mind free. I think that I have become very bad at that.
I've been thinking a lot about the idea of memetics and whether it's a worthwhile one, what the problems with the notions and discussions may be, and what can be done to fix it (if anything). There's a book that would be perfect for that sort of thing, called Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science, but it's fairly expensive and there is some recent potential for financial problems that will prevent me from buying any new books for a while (plus I already have so many books I should really be reading).
One of the topics in which I have been recently interested (trying to consciously fix my English here) is that of collective memory, which someone recently questioned on anthropologist. It was following some links about the topic that lead me back to reading about memes and memetics, which in turn distracted me from reading further about collective memory. In realizing how complex a topic collective memory itself can be, I realized that memetics will be a much more complex topic for any really good discussion of the idea. Collective memory requires a familiarity with the fundamentals of memory itself as well as a good variety of reading on different perspectives of what sorts of things could constitute collective memory and how such things may operate. And that would become just one of many branches of study which would be important to a proper study of memetics, I think. Not to mention various aspects of sociology, cultural and biological anthropology, linguistics, psychology and neurobiology, etc.
Anyways, I should try and give my brain a rest so that it can wind down before I go to bed. I must get up early in the morning to do some joint grocery shopping with my roommate and then head to the leasing office for our apartment to try and resolve some random rent issue that arose just today.
What I can say is that I've now read Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene. It isn't a very good book, but seems like an important one in its own way. I think that one of the main reasons I wanted to read it is because of my curiosity about "memes," something that a lot of people like to talk about these days but most people don't seem to really understand. Also, I realized that I do not have a very firm grasp of evolutionary theory because of my upbringing. At some point I became aware of the idea, but never really learned anything about evolutionary theory until I took an introductory biology class like three semesters ago. I don't really think this is necessarily a good book to be introduced to evolutionary theory, but the combined need to learn about evolution and read the book that coined the term "meme" lead me to read it -- plus a recommendation from a friend.
There are other books I'd like to read on the topic, or relavent to the topic, that I probably won't get around to for money purposes and because there are a pretty good pile of them and I am not particularly literate -- I had to force myself to make it through two chapters each day. I read slowly and my brain goes into tangents in all sorts of directions, mixing and matching different topics, so it's very difficult for me to be focused. I wonder sometimes if I have developed some sort of attention deficit disorder or something similar, but maybe I should just spend more time laying down and staring into space so as to let my mind free. I think that I have become very bad at that.
I've been thinking a lot about the idea of memetics and whether it's a worthwhile one, what the problems with the notions and discussions may be, and what can be done to fix it (if anything). There's a book that would be perfect for that sort of thing, called Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science, but it's fairly expensive and there is some recent potential for financial problems that will prevent me from buying any new books for a while (plus I already have so many books I should really be reading).
One of the topics in which I have been recently interested (trying to consciously fix my English here) is that of collective memory, which someone recently questioned on anthropologist. It was following some links about the topic that lead me back to reading about memes and memetics, which in turn distracted me from reading further about collective memory. In realizing how complex a topic collective memory itself can be, I realized that memetics will be a much more complex topic for any really good discussion of the idea. Collective memory requires a familiarity with the fundamentals of memory itself as well as a good variety of reading on different perspectives of what sorts of things could constitute collective memory and how such things may operate. And that would become just one of many branches of study which would be important to a proper study of memetics, I think. Not to mention various aspects of sociology, cultural and biological anthropology, linguistics, psychology and neurobiology, etc.
Anyways, I should try and give my brain a rest so that it can wind down before I go to bed. I must get up early in the morning to do some joint grocery shopping with my roommate and then head to the leasing office for our apartment to try and resolve some random rent issue that arose just today.