Helmut,
My own reference to time scale was in connection with the controversy in evolutionary biology between “gradualists” and “saltationists” (believers in “punctuated equilibrium”), and my point was that on the evolutionary time scale, a “sudden event” can take a hundred thousand years to occur. But emergence in evolution, as I understand it, has nothing to do with suddenness. It refers to the fact that the interactive processes of a complex system can do things that would not have been possible for any or all of its component systems, acting independently, to do. Emergence, like evolution itself, is a fact, not an event or series of events, although it is known by inference from a series of separate observations. It takes time, just as semiosis or “thought” does, but doesn’t occur at any particular rate. So I think I’m agreeing with you here. Gary f. -----Original Message----- From: h.raul...@gmx.de [mailto:h.raul...@gmx.de] Sent: 20-Jul-16 12:30 To: g...@gnusystems.ca; 'Peirce-L' <PEIRCE-L@LIST.IUPUI.EDU> Subject: Re: RE: [PEIRCE-L] Mind evolving Dear Gary F., list, you wrote: " If by “things” you mean inanimate physical material entities, Peirce would say that those “things” generally do NOT take habits, because they are already “habit-bound.” But Peirce doesn’t use the word “thing” that way, at least not in cosmology." Thank you! This way I think I see it. Now I do not feel in opposition towards Peirces habit concept anymore. I think, there might be a lot to discuss still about emergence and time (and space) scales. Might it be so (as I have written in my respond to Ben too), that there are emergences, which are so strong, that they become scale-invariable, meaning, they are observable as being something special in any scale? Like the distinction between inanimate and animate? Usually a large space scale is connected with a large time scale. An elephants reactions are slower than an insects. The universe is the biggest system one can imagine, so, if there is a quasi-mind of the universe, this mind would be supposed to be a very slow thinker. But faithful people claim that they can communicate with God . Also there are nonlocal effects, like quantum entanglement, so very fast communication within the universe may be possible- not for us, as physicists say- but maybe for the universe? So might it be, that the universal mind is (time-) scale-invariable somehow? (Scale-invariability has to do with fractals and chaos theory. Ive read about it in Mandelbrots book with the appleman pictures and other fractals). Best, Helmut
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