Values

Ian Morris would like to explain non-physical things with physical things. Why is that? The rebuttal Morris ignored is the most telling. Morris is essentially a capitalist. His values guide his explaining. I am a contrarian. Because capitalism rules, I am not a capitalist. My explanation for values is independent of the material world. Values are memes that battle it out in our brains. Morris’ observation about accelerated value change is explained by accelerated intercourse. If memes that favor intercourse win out, memes that favor consumption need not. We each have a responsibility to keep our mental homes orderly, by favoring memes that do not threaten our existence. In particular, the meme of climate denial should be eviscerated. How does the physical world affect memes? Why not ask how paper affected communication? Quite a lot. But not in a simple way like natural selection. The medium affects the message in counterintuitive ways. Morris does not go very far beyond intuition, so his theory helps no one but himself. More helpful would be a system dynamic model of the brain. Then because scientific method scientists understand such models better than do intuitionists, such as Morris, Morris’ capitalist meme would be quashed. The key feature of sustainable media is that they are significantly simpler than the universe. The reason humans are in so much danger is that they are an especially complex medium. It is by understanding the medium that artists are able to be constructive. And it is by understanding why we have values that we will put oil companies out of business, and thrive in a high intercourse world.