[Platt] But if you are referring, as Pirsig does, to the issue of human free will vs. determinism, then only humans have free will to the "extent one follows Dynamic Quality." (Lila, 12).
[Arlo] Before humans appeared, what responded to DQ? Animals? Amoebas? Was there ever a time on this little planet that NOTHING responded to DQ? Say, before people but after animals "lost" this ability? Or was there always SOMETHING around that could respond to DQ? Let's go back the era of the dinosaurs, could THEY respond to DQ? If not, what could? Was there nothing in existence at that time that COULD respond to DQ? And, since you equate "free will" with "responding to DQ" (or claim Pirsig does), did animals have "free will" when they were able to respond to DQ? When that first carbon atom formed, did it do so of "free will"? My contention is that all the patterns we "see" are simply high-probability aggregations of "responses to DQ". Anytime anything happens because "it's better" is an example of a response to DQ. Whether its a person jumping off a hot stove or a cat jumping off a hot stove or an amoebe moving away from a drop of acid or a die that won't stand on it's edge, these are all examples of constrained (and afforded) responses to DQ. 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/
