On Sun, Oct 28, 2012 at 12:12 AM, Craig Weinberg <whatsons...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> How can a human exceed his hardware? Everything he does must be due to >> the hardware plus input from the environment, same as the computer, >> same as everything else in the universe. > > > What input from the environment might cause an acorn to build and fly a > B-52? Is there a special B-52 building gene that comes with humans but not > acorns? Humans have a large number of genes enabling them to grow brains and build B-52's while acorns lack these genes. > It's a really narrow view of the cosmos which imagines that the > universe is about nothing but what stuff it is made of - that the > environment dictates with inputs but that the self has no non-environmental > outputs. Do you mean can a human do something dependent only on himself and not the environment? I suppose you could say this if you completely isolated him from everything, although even then he would be subject to factors such as ambient temperature and air pressure. > What happens if we take it a step further and recuse ourselves and our human > layer of experience entirely. Who is to say whether the appearance of > neurons and atoms is merely an evolutionary device to prop up the hormone > and neurotransmitter spray that is 'science' or if, instead, it is > evolutionary biology which is the illusion of molecules, whose endless > repeating patterns know no genuine coherence as individual creatures or > species. > > Who chooses the level of description? If you're a solipsist then you choose everything. -- Stathis Papaioannou -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
