LS Re: Explain the Dynamic/Static split


Theo Schramm (theoschramm@hotmail.com)
Mon, 8 Jun 1998 16:09:32 +0100


Greetings,

MAGNUS:
"I don't think sentience has anything to do with any particular static
level. You can't say that sentience appeared in the development of the
biological level. I bet that if you looked at a video of the earth a 100
times faster than normal, you'd think that it was sentient too. It takes
water from the oceans and pour it on the land so that life can grow
there. It would look like the earth, or Gaia, has a purpose in doing so.

Any constellation of only static patterns, completely void of dynamic
influence, is what I call non sentient. I.e. it has no free will and is
predictable in every way. It is the dynamic influence, the DQ, that
makes static patterns seem sentient, not the particular level as such"

Sentience simply means having the power of perception by the senses. For
this to occur senses must be developed. Whether the earth, to our eyes,
mimics sentience under speeded up observation is neither here nor there,
as this is an example of our perception of the earth and not vice
versa. Dynamic Quality can act upon the smallest of 'things' but to
conclude that that thing is sentient denies the accepted use of the term
'sentient' in the English language. There is no doubt that sentience
appeared with the biological level as this is what the term was invented
to describe. Also, the term 'sentience' has nothing to do with free
will. One could be sentient and yet not have free will, although free
will does of course presuppose sentience. Further, the difference
between non-determinism and sentience is fairly straight forward. The
former is the claim that all events are external to the will while the
latter is as above. There is no similarity or contradiction in that
they both describe entirely different things.

There really is no need to invent new meanings for long established
words. They are quite clear in their descriptive function and all
misuse does is draw a mystical veil over the whole area which serves no
purpose at all other than obscurantism.

Theo

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