[MD] Distinguishing Levels (Individual level)

[Gene M]

Arlo, Platt. At this point you're just yelling the same things again and
again after the other. Does seem like it'll actually Do anything? If an
argument fails the first time, repeating it also tends to end in failure.
This is not a surprising fact. Shift to some new arguments. I'll say that I
am on Arlo's side of this discussion, but Platt raises some interesting
points that should be addressed with some new ideas. And Platt, maybe you
could move out of familiar territory for a change? For a man who says only
intellectal patterns can respond to dynamic quality, you sure seem set on
the static patterns. Try some new ideas, maybe they can explain your points
better.

You both need to shift into some new ideas and new directions of
conversation, cause this is just like watching two huge dudes kick each
other square in the nuts until one goes down. Funny, but doesn't accomplish
much, and frankly it starts to hurt to watch it after a while.

And so as to throw something to yell at me about:

Platt: The idea that static quality is somehow also on the front of
experience is just something you made up. Admit it. It's an interesting
idea, but has no relation to the MOQ other than vocabulary. Such an idea
would in every way destroy the MOQ. In ZMM Pirsig makes an analogy for
Reality to a freight train. The rails are Dynamic Quality, the front of the
train is experience, which follows DQ, and all of the cars that are trailed
behind the train are staic patterns of value. His wordage, of course, is not
that of the MOQ yet, but I think in Lila he goes over it again and uses
those terms. Clearly, DQ is first, it's always there, we follow it, and drag
around all our static patterns with us. The case seems pretty clear against
you on this one man.

"Following betterness" and "escaping badness" are essentially the same idea
a lot of the time (notice I didn't say All the time). Maybe the amoeba isn't
going away from the Acid because the Acid is bad, but because away from the
Acid is better. It's seeking some sense of betterness in it's Reality.
Phrased that way, it sounds a lot like it's aware of DQ to me.

And finally, I'd really like to see an answer to this question as well:

Before humans, could animals respond to DQ? If so, did the appearance of
> humans in Africa so many tens of thousands of years ago cause animals
> living on the North American plains at the time to suddenly lose their
> ability to respond to DQ instantly? Or did they lose it when the first
> human stepped onto the North American continent?


When exactly in human evolution did animals
(animals Other than humans, that should say. Guess what, we're still
technically animals!) stop being able to seek Dynamic Quality?

-Gene