From: Nathan Pila (pila@sympatico.ca)
Date: Wed Nov 12 2003 - 05:03:22 GMT
Steve,
I play the market and have something called LEVEL II service. At times I sit
in awe watching as the information I am getting from the screen updates
itself. I can't believe that all of this is "just" or "merely" a series of
on and off switches. Or to give another example, I have trouble
comprehending that a film that I can have an emotional reaction to,
essentially is made of light and dark pixels that are put together in an
organized fashion to create an image on a flat surface.
Or a novel is made of letter of the alphabet organized into sentences which
are organized into paragraphs which in turn are organized into chapters. At
the end, the whole is much better and richer than the sum of the parts.
Letters can't make me feel angry or induce tears to come to my eyes. Or can
they?
But the novel is an illusion, as is movies, as is the information on the
price of the stocks I follow. Our brain takes in the information from a book
or a theatre screen or a computer screen and makes sense out of it because
it is hard wired to do so.
Does this conflict with your view of how things work in the universe? That
is, how do you feel about the fact that the human brain gives meaning to
information?
With humility, Nathan
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Peterson" <peterson.steve@verizon.net>
To: <moq_discuss@moq.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2003 9:07 PM
Subject: Re: MD life is an emergent property
> Hi Nathan,
>
> > I don't mind you having a laugh at my expense because I recognize the
humour
> > in my position. It does sound quite absurd.
>
> I'm glad you took no offense. Certainly none was intended, and I wasn't
> laughing at you.
>
> > I recall Descartes' dictum that the ONLY thing he was positively sure of
> > was, that he existed and Descartes' thought held the mind of thinkers
for
> > literally centuries. And now, here I come with some preposterous
statement
> > that questions all of this.
>
> Your absurd conclusion follows quite logically from your assumptions. My
> point was to get you to check your premises.
>
>
> > But I am not putting you on or playing with you and I do sense the
problem
> > of sunsets you refer to and the incredible feeling of getting to be a
father
> > for the first time and the sweet taste of wine and food and sex and
> > etc...How is that merely chemicals and the dance of molecules?
>
> Right on!
>
> Remember that Pirsig suggests we be suspicious of the word "just" which is
> like your "merely." I like how you've emphasized the importance of
> maintaining a sense of wonder in the face of all the "justs."
>
>
> > But if I exist, where did I come from? And where do I go? And what
happens
> > to a person who has a stroke and becomes a different person? Where did
the
> > old one go and where did the new one come from?
> >
> > And since all of my molecules are exchanged over the course of time, why
> > should I work hard today for somebody who I will share nothing physical
with
> > and will exist years from now?
> >
> > (The person who went through high school and university and married and
had
> > children is not me except that I carry his memory. The cells that
composed
> > his body have been eliminated and new cells have replaced them).
> >
> > ZMM touches on these themes, doesn't it? I like the questions it raises
and
> > like the questions you raise also.
>
> Yeah. These are the sorts of questions that Pirsig talked about in the
> after word to ZAMM when he writes about the death of his son.
>
> Regards,
> Steve
>
>
>
>
>
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