Unlearning Org., "Coherence" LO9530

BrooksJeff@aol.com
Tue, 27 Aug 1996 20:03:37 -0400

Arthur Battram (LO9484, 96-08-26) writes:

<< We're talking about memes here. We can't easily control 'em ,
they're selfish and they replicate. They will mutate, inevitably
[mutate=distort] AND , yes, they turn into fads, or rather they are fads,
and they 'catch' us so they can infect us so they can replicate. Just like
the 'system' of the 'corporation' is a thing and not anything under the
control of the people inside it. In the jargon a company is a meme
complex. As Michael himself says [I paraphrase] 'organisations are
constructed in language', and memetics tells us they ARE language...

The task is to try to shape memes that at least set out [sensitivity to
initial conditions] in vaguely the right direction in possibility space,
before they mutate... >>

Arthur,

I like the "meme" concept, too. It's a nice generalization of darwinian
theory. Your post has prompted me to put into words some thoughts of mine:

You highlighted the mutation of memes, and this certainly happens, but I
wonder about how certain memes persist. The law of entropy implies that the
persistence of memes has to involve an active process, so I'd like to think
about "coherence."

In a post about the use of images, I wrote that I thought that images
"capture" something and that they help people hold onto ideas. I think that
the images, metaphors, stories, etc., that "work" are somehow
self-reinforcing - they cohere. This may be akin to the use of "attractor"
by (? - sorry ,I don't remember) on this board. If we think about
organizations as memes, then perhaps an important issue is how to build in
coherence. Of course, (as I also wrote in another post) breaking up
coherence to allow for new possibilities is obviously important for learning,
as well, so maybe the question should be how much coherence is optimal, and
in what circumstances?

Perhaps what we're aiming for is a resilient meme that supports the mutation
of memes, but then can weed out the maladaptive ones before they do much
damage. (Microworlds, anyone?)

-Jeff (BrooksJeff@AOL.com)

-- 

BrooksJeff@aol.com

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>