On Thursday, July 18, 2013 8:00:44 PM UTC-4, stathisp wrote: > > On 18 July 2013 23:20, Craig Weinberg <whats...@gmail.com <javascript:>> > wrote: > > >> I did use the term "rational" perhaps inappropriately. I meant that > >> some aesthetic choices have evolutionary utility and others not. > >> Nevertheless, all aesthetic choices must be determined by the physics > >> of our brain, unless they are determined by something else, such as an > >> immaterial soul. > >> > > > > If aesthetic choices were determined by physics of our brain then pure > sugar > > would look magical and gold would look like dirt. Aesthetics are not > > determined. Or they would both look like mosaics of neurochemical bonds. > I > > say 'look', but of course if aesthetics were driven by physics alone, > > nothing could 'look' like anything, no more than the positions of the > beads > > of an abacus can smell like something. > > > > The universe is an aesthetic agenda. Existence is that which seeks to > feel > > better, be more. Biology speeds it up in a microcosmic recapitulation is > > all, and human beings represent an even more radical experiment in what > I > > call solitrophy. > > Craig, > > If a dog started talking in full English sentences without > manipulation by an outside force the explanation must be in the > physics of its body. I don't think this statement is either clever or > controversial. And if the physics of the dog's body is computable then > it should be possible to make an artificial dog controlled by a > computer that talks in full English sentences just like the real dog. > I don't think that statement is either clever or controversial either. > It can be seen to be true in the absence of any understanding of dog > physiology. > > Of course the sensory-motive capacities of anything are reflected in physics, but it is not necessarily transitive. Physics may not be able replicate a particular being's sense or motive any more than the characters in a movie can change their own script.
Thanks, Craig > -- > Stathis Papaioannou > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
