Horse (horse@wasted.demon.nl)
Fri, 11 Sep 1998 13:40:19 +0100
Hi Magnus and Squad
> You wrote:
> > Consider another lifeform - The Internet. The implications of the 'net
> > as a part of level 5 are enormous.
>
> I don't think so. I think the Internet is a brain of intellectual patterns
> built on human societies in exactly the same way our brains are built on
> our body-societies. Just because an entity is made of other smaller
> entities doesn't make it a higher level.
>
Magnus, my use of the word lifeform was partly in error as this
tends to imply that an L5 entity is directly comparable with lower
level patterns. I see it as distinct from L4 patterns and below but,
as with lower level patterns it is the combination and interaction of
the levels that produces a distinction. Thus IntPoV's are emergent
from the lower levels and dependent upon them but distinct.
I think this is where I disagree with Pirsig and his assertion that the
levels are discrete. It is the discreteness that produces problems.
My definition of discrete is a set of patterns or things that have no
relationship to any other set of patterns or things. Distinct is more
to do with distinguishability. The example that Diana gave of the
Mother/child relationship shows this. The child is distinct from the
mother but not discrete. They are seperate individuals who share
many of the same characteristics and elements - DNA being one
such. But I digress!
The Internet as I see it is not just a bunch of connected computers
or even a bunch of connected networks. It is the relationship
between the systems and the information that they hold. I don't
want to go much further in this post. I've thought about some of the
things being said here and they seem to be on topic with the
PROGRAM subject so I''ll move back to that.
Horse
"Making history, it turned out, was quite easy.
It was what got written down.
It was as simple as that!"
Sir Sam Vimes.
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