Homesteads in Mind Space by Steve Wilson
Artist's Statement ____________________________Evolution proceeds through the mutation of genes. New genes appear. Some end up being better suited to changing realities. These new genes become selected and become the norm. Older organisms die out and become extinct. Some believe human cultures advance in a similar way. New memes (ideas, cultural forms) appear. Some are adopted because of their power. These new memes become the norms in culture. Older forms are abandoned and die out. We could think of these new ideas as homesteads in cultural evolution. They "colonize" mind space. The process is hard to see from inside. Old forms are comfortable and do their work. New ideas can seem fanatic, alien, wild, fringe. . . . For a while, they are resisted and ridiculed. Art has often been the champion of these unorthodox ideas. The Web could accelerate the pace of cultural evolution by making it easy for new ideas to be published and spread from anywhere in the world. But many ideas really are dead ends and lead nowhere. How can we tell which new ideas are the seeds of the future and which are doorways to nowhere? ____________________________ Steve Wilson, 74 Coleridge Street, San Francisco, CA 94110, U.S.A., swilson@sfsu.edu. |
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