LS Re: Conceptions of Dynamic Quality


clark (clark@netsites.net)
Mon, 2 Mar 1998 03:18:53 +0100


Keith and LS,
  Enough already! &%!!@##% smart alecks.
  You have made a good case for your argument. I am still going to try to
make it the other way though.
  I had an epiphany last night which kept me awake for a while. I was going
to construct my personal interpretation of the MOQ but I think it would be
more fun if I threw out an idea and see if it attracted any interest.
  One of the problems I have been having without realizing it was that I
have been concentrating on Lila and ignoring ZMM. Last night I went back to
ZMM and skimmed through some of it.
  On page 245 of the paperback Bantam edition Pirsig writes
  "In our highly complex organic state we advanced organisms respond to our
environment with an invention of many marvelous analogues. We invent".....a
little farther on, "Quality is the continuing stimulus which our
environment puts upon us to create the world in which we live. All of it.
Every last bit of it".
  On the nest page he relates Quality to the Tao in the Tao Te Ching of Lao
Tzu.
  Substituting quality he reads:

  The quality that can be defined is not the Absolute Quality. (not classic
quality-my words)
  The names that can be given it are not Absolute names.
  It is the origin of heaven and earth.
  When named it is the mother of all things....

  At that point he is speaking of Romantic Quality-later Dynamic Quality.

  I tried a similar substitution using "Force for Greater Information
Content" and found that it worked just as well and made more sense to me.

  It should be obvious to all of us that there is a force in the universe
that is acting to oppose entropy and store a greater content of information
in the universe. It is evident in the formation of galaxies, stars,
evolution, and eventually us. It is continuing to act in the processes of
our minds.
  Without negentropy (hangups in the flow of the universe toward complete
randomness) the universe could not have developed in the way that it did.
The formation of most of the stars from Hydrogen represents negentropy in
that it greatly extends the lifetimes of the stars and allows time for all
else to happen. After the depletion of Hydrogen and the explosion of some
stars, energy was provided for the formation of iron and the remainder of
the heavier elements. From this debris happened earth.
  When we get to the evolution of life, every possible combination of the
available elements was tried in accordance with local environmental
conditions. Those combinations that exhibited the greatest negentropy
persisted and gave a platform for still greater information content. This
process, happening randomly and always latching the greatest negentropy
eventually resulted in us.
  When we get to US we can see the same process happening intellectually.
History makes obvious (despite the Greeks) that there is a pressure toward
higher morality in this whole process including the workings of our minds.
  To my mind this view of morality encompasses all of the inorganic
processes in the universe as well as the continually growing morality of
our species.
  If we call this process the Tao, or Dynamic Quality, or The Force for
Greater Information Content (Morality) makes no difference.
  This process is not definable because of its complete randomness. The
only thing we can say is that QM has always worked and we hope it always
will.
  Off course the whole universal process is probably heading toward
complete randomness but in the meantime Dynamic Quality rules.
  Does any of this make any sense. At the moment it does to me and I'm
sticking to it.
  Keith, your E-mail address seems to indicate Texas. As one who was raised
on the banks of Red River in Oklahoma I am wondering why you have not taken
this opportunity to say a few words about Texas :-). Isn't it fun? Ken
Clark

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