[Platt] Seems that if any material could be classified as especially susceptible to the vagaries of chance and probability it would be carbon. Haven't I read somewhere that it's also the basis of life?
I'd appreciate any thoughts you might have on the subject although what it has to do with philosophy is a stretch other than Pirsig seems to attribute to it magical qualities. After looking at (and pricing) diamonds, I can say carbon can have very high value. [Krimel] This is not a subject about which I even pretend to any expertise but I believe your assessment of carbon's susceptibility to chance is correct. As I understand it carbon's position on the periodic table puts it midway between metal and non metals. As a result it can form chemical bonds with just about any other element. It is so versatile in this respect that Organic chemistry is a branch of the science of chemistry that studies exclusively compounds of carbon. All life is based on organic chemistry or compounds of carbon. Carbon has the ability to be a part of such an enormous number of static patterns and yet still be susceptible to dynamic change. It is intimately involved in the transduction of a host of energy patterns in the environment from one form to another. The most striking example of this is the transduction of light energy from the sun into chemical energy in plants. Photosynthesis occurs as light is transduced into sugars. The sugar acts as a battery storing the sun's energy so that it can be release later. Carbon has many other interesting properties as well. You note diamonds and coal. Compounds of graphite, another form of carbon, are now used to make a host of light weight but very strong and durable products. Fullerenes or Bucky balls are composed of 60 carbon atoms arranged in a shape rather like a geodesic dome. (Invented by Buckminster Fuller, hence the name) These carbon molecules have marvelous properties that are only now being discovered and studied but they include the ability to form into long and sturdy tubes that may form the basis for nanotechnological engineering in the future. Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
