Jonathan B. Marder (marder@agri.huji.ac.il)
Tue, 16 Jun 1998 11:57:35 +0100
Hi Squad,
THEO wrote:-
...
>However I still am not clear upon why, for
>example, the inorganic level is a 'SO context' I understand why the
>intellectual level can be seen as such (thanks to BO) but here you lose
>me. Care to elaborate?
Let's take the example of a green alga sitting in water. A quantum of
blue light (a photon) comes and is absorbed by a chlorophyll molecule.
Now that same photon has traversed millions of miles of space without
being absorbed (nothing to absorb it there) but it has also penetrated
the atmosphere and perhaps a couple of metres depth of water. It has
passed by or through huge numbers of air and water molecules, and yet
not one reacted. They all failed to even notice the passing photon.
Water and air molecules don't recognise blue light. They don't have the
appropriate electron organisation pattern. However, chlorophyll does.
That's not to say that a photon will necessarily be absorbed by the
first chlorophyll it meets, but it's MUCH more likely. Put together just
a few million chlorophylls and the possibility becomes a likelihood.
This is all pretty simple:-
Observed = photon
Observer = chlorophyll
But, for the chlorophyll sitting next to the primary observer:-
Observed = excited chlorophyll (the one that just absorbed the photon)
Observer = neighbouring chlorophyll
and it doesn't stop there. That's already two SO contexts WITHIN
Pirsig's inorganic level and we've only just started.
I hope that this begins to clarify my approach ...
Jonathan
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