Re: virus: Technology (was manifest science)
Joe E. Dees (joedees@bellsouth.net)
Wed, 2 Jun 1999 16:50:29 -0500
Date sent: Wed, 2 Jun 1999 01:05:05 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dylan Durst <ddurst@levien.com>
To: virus@lucifer.com
Subject: Re: virus: Technology (was manifest science)
Send reply to: virus@lucifer.com
> > And prior to the human race, just exactly through whose eye and
> > mind would logic have been able to evolve (not the proper word) or
> > be extracted from perception (the right phrase), since it is, after all
> > derived from perception through reflective abstraction. Is this
> > another one of those God Thingies?
>
> 'logic'?
>
> Venus fly trap:
> if(DetectMovement(Clutches)) CloseClutches();
> if(FinishedDigesting(Clutches.inside)) OpenClutches();
>
> While i'd say the proccess is a bit more fuzzy then that, it is logic.
> (Note: i'm using definition 'd' from "logic" at www.m-w.com
>
> d: the arrangement of circuit elements
> (as in a computer) needed for computation;
> also : the circuits themselves
>
Circuits which have not been designed and/or manufactured by an
intentional self-conscious awareness do not exist. Electrochemical
potential flows along the dendrites and synapses of neurons, but to
compare them with a Pentium is a major metaphoric leap, and to
equate the two is fallacious. Logic, in the first, second and third
senses of m-w.com, is a collection of abstract principles which
have been derived from observation of the shared structural
invariants of a multiplicity of distinct experiences. The venus flytrap
is an organism which instinctually performs an interconnected set
of actions in response to a particular stimulus; logic may be
extracted and generalized from this physical system (in concert
with other distinct instantiations), but it is only logic per se when it
is abstract and general; that is, derived from the commonalities
shared by a multitude of particulars, unattached to any one of them
exclusively, and thus applicable to a multiplicity of them.
>
> - dylan
>
>