[MD] Dawkins a Materialist (is watching?)

[ian glendinning]

Platt, Arlo, Case,

Great selected quote Arlo - Johnson's good.

I think this is key
"The key here is that life does not simply reduce down to transcribing
static passages from our genetic scripture. Cells figure out which
passages to pay attention to by observing signals from the cells
around them: only with that local
interaction can complex "neighborhoods" of cell types 'come into being."

I've been thinking a good deal about "consciousness" independent of
highly developed intelligent minds since listening to Prof Nasr's talk
(linked earlier) - the trick is recognising many things at many levels
without succumbing to "reductionism".

Phrases like "somehow know", "figure out" applied to "simpler"
objects, seem like anthropomorphic use of the words, but of course
they are more than just metaphors if we accept that concsiouness,
knowing, figuing, etc exist "in some form, at all levels" ... it's
just their evolved form that varies. These "consciousnesses" really
are Pirsig's quality interactions between things.

Platt are you saying, that faced with Johnson's description of
"emergence" you are accepting emergence as a worthwhile explanatory
concept ? I believe "the argument from intelligent design" as you call
it, boils down to the same "engineering" or "self-organising complex
systems" view of how seemingly magical things emerge from many
simple(r) things. It's only magical (seemingly telelogical according
to some higher intelligence) if we skip across the many levels
involved in the emergence.

Ian

On 1/18/07, pholden at davtv.com <pholden at davtv.com> wrote:
> Quoting Arlo Bensinger <ajb102 at psu.edu>:
>
>
> > Here is a, lengthy, passage from Steven Johnson's
> > "Emergence" that deals with this process.
>
> After reading this I understood more than ever the argument
> from intelligent design. The "process" boggles the human mind.
> Thanks for sharing.
>
> Platt
>
>
>
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