Bodvar Skutvik (skutvik@online.no)
Wed, 17 Jun 1998 15:49:15 +0100
Tue, 16 Jun 1998 17:46:23 +0000
"Jonathan B. Marder" <marder@agri.huji.ac.il>
wrote:
> 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 and Squad!
Regrettably I havent monitored (closely) the dialogue between Theo and
yourself, but this one caught my attention. S-O context in other
levels than the Intellect!? Theo agrees with my SOTAQI idea (to my
endless satisfaction) and asked you to elaborate on a S-O example at
the Inorganic level and you gave the one about the observing
chlorophyll.
Phew, I thought the mind ghost had been properly buried by the SOTAQI
procedure, but here it rises again. All right, it started with Diana's
question if not Pirsig implies that all of reality is sentient? Horse
in his message of yesterday (16 June) asked where Diana found that
stated in LILA, and I join him. What Pirsig says is something to the
effect of ..What is the chance that an atom possesses knowledge (I did
not find the actual quotation).
On the other hand; P. does speak about a Q-physics where ...event B
values event A (inverted causation) and broadly speaking does the
Quality idea imply an all- pervading EVALUATING dynamism which has
created and upholds the hierarchy of moral levels. This "drift" may -
if one starts with a SOM frame of reference - become "sentient" atoms
or "observing" chlorophyll molecules etc, but it is not the essence
of the MOQ!
I don't know where the said chlorophyll belongs on the scale, perhaps
the fringe zone between matter and life? It only occurs in plants and
its ability to convert light into organic "fuel" is the precondition
for life. In P's word it is a liberation from Inorganic rigidity, but
it does not mean that the chlorophyll molecules (which in themselves
are as matterish as matter comes) possess a will to spite matter - or
"evil" intentions regarding Inorganic value. It is the QUALITY at
work!
Finally. I think you see that your argument proliferates into
absurdity as the other chlorophyll become observers of the excited
one, which in turn...ad infinitum. No, Jonathan, I think the
observer/observed phenomenon is confined to the Q-Intellectual level.
Mystification of matter is a sure sign of SOM residue. However, the
MOQ is a "spiritualisation" of all existence; AN ENORMOUS
LIBERATION!!!!
Hurry up and give us a response before Diana's timeout.
Bo
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