Re: virus: More tangents on religion, etc. (prev. Demon Thread)

James T. Martin (martinj@theriver.com)
Sat, 27 Apr 1996 16:06:39 -0700

At 12:04 PM 4/27/96 -0400, you wrote:
>On Sat Apr 27, 6:14am Marc Connolly quoted BECOME WHAT YOU ARE (by Alan Watts):
*** Reed Konsler wrote:
>What is conciousness for, if not to change the environment?
>Meaning = Effect.
>
>Perhaps it is futile to save ourselves from "the final plop" but I would argue
>that evolution requires a dynamic equilibrium, a "pressure". If one does not
>strive for SOMETHING then stagnation is the result, and stagnant systems become
>less stable and less compeditive.

The normally brilliant Mr. Konsler may be a little off on this one.
Naturally, it may be my fuzzy understanding of his meaning. But
"dynamic equilibrium, and pressure" and such, sound like discredited
Lamarkian (sp?) evolution to me. No, it's the impersonal flow of natural
selection that determines the fate of life on earth, interspersed with
cosmic tragedies. What is consciousness for? It's the height of adaptive
evolution which strives for more complex input. Are you talking strictly
about a change in the environment of the mind? Our physical
change of the environment may well be our final undoing.
"Meaning = Effect?" You must be feeling particularly senisitive today, I
get no meaning from that at all. Jim Martin
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