On Wed, Sep 3, 2014 'Chris de Morsella' via Everything List < [email protected]> wrote:
>a human baby is a plastic template for the individual to emerge in > And those 1000 lines of Lisp are a plastic template for the Jupiter Brain to emerge in. > All of that living experience and cultural learning is not contained > inside that DNA bundle. > Obviously. And everything the adult Jupiter Brain knows wasn't contained in those 1000 lines of Lisp, but that was the seed that got things going. > I disagree with your conclusion that epigenetic effects are of minor > consequence. > Are you saying that random environmental conditions in the womb are necessary to build a brain? I don't see how that could work but a machine has just as much access to the environment as a fetus. Or are you saying the conditions are not random at all but planned and deliberate? Well, I don't believe in God. > The very rapid unfolding sequence of DNA choreographed events that occurs > during embryogenesis will unfold in a different manner in each instance. > DNA doesn't fold or unfold, the most it does is during reproduction when it temporally turns from a double helix to 2 single helices which soon turn into 2 double helices. It's protein that's the champion folder and the same sequence of amino acids always fold into the same shape under all lifelike conditions; it's a good thing too because if the way proteins wasn't consistent and reliable life would be impossible. > It is an extra mechanism that works hand I hand with DNA switching > expression on and off… selecting from alternate exressions. > Yes, but computer code has been doing that, switching subroutines on and off, for more than 60 years. Tell me something of fundamental importance that meat can do but silicon can't. > > how these regions finally get transcribed into mRNA, in what is a highly > dynamic process And when a Lisp program gets run it's a a highly dynamic process. Tell me something of fundamental importance that meat can do but silicon can't. >> So the key to consciousness and the factor that determines our personal >> identity lies in our poo? >> > > If you want to characterize your digestive process by what is defecated > out as waste I think you must not have a good grasp of what the digestive > process is all about. It is our primary interface with the external world. > It is the interface where we absorb the external world into our bodies > internal world. It even has its own tiny frontline brain – the enteric > nervous system. > So I guess the answer to my question is yes. > >>> It affects out well-being >> > >> So would an inflamed toenail, but I don't think a investigation of that >> affliction will bring much enlightenment on the nature of intelligence or >> consciousness. >> > > > Apples and oranges > are both trees. > Just because one tool – reductionism has had spectacular success in > increasing our understanding (and I am not denying that it has) does not > mean that it is always the appropriate tool to use for the job. > Reductionism may not always work but holism NEVER works. John K Clark -- 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 [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
