[MD] Chance

[David M]

Hi Arlo

I think these are good points you are making below.
How would you describe more static responses.
To some extent jumping off the hot stove is a 
habitual/patterned form of behaviour and so is
SQ. I thinks all experiences and processes have a
DQ/SQ mix. The SQ simply being the more patterned/
repeated aspects. DQ the more new or unique.

David M


> [DM]
> Inanimate DQ, well I have read that new crystals (DQ) of new 
> materials take longer to form than once they have been knocking 
> around a few years (become SQ), is that an example of DQ at lower levels.
> 
> [Arlo]
> It may be. As I said, it's not like we're looking for atoms that can 
> read or write poetry. But this demonstrates a critical first 
> question, what does a response to Dynamic Quality look like? My 
> contention is that anytime anything happens because of "betterness", 
> it is a response to DQ.
> 
> Pirsig says in LILA, "Dynamic  Quality is the pre-intellectual 
> cutting edge of reality." He then uses a hot stove example clarify. 
> "When the person who sits on the stove first discovers his 
> low-Quality situation, the front edge of his experience is Dynamic."
> 
> Now I ask you, place a cat on that hot stove. Does not the following 
> description also apply to that cat? "He does not think, "This stove 
> is hot," and then make a rational decision to get off. A "dim 
> perception of he knows not what" gets him off Dynamically."? My 
> answer is it most certainly applies to that cat.
> 
> In ZMM, Pirsig offers a similar example using an amoeba. "An amoeba, 
> placed on a plate of water with a drip of dilute sulfuric acid placed 
> nearby, will pull away from the acid (I think). If it could speak the 
> amoeba, without knowing anything about sulfuric acid, could say, 
> 'This environment has poor quality.' If it had a nervous system it 
> would act in a much more complex way to overcome the poor quality of 
> the environment. It would seek analogues, that is, images and symbols 
> from its previous experience, to define the unpleasant nature of its 
> new environment and thus 'understand' it." (ZMM)
> 
> What's important to note is that in all three cases (man, cat, 
> amoeba) the primary, initial response is Dynamic.
> 
> Now, what I've also been saying is that how anything responds to DQ 
> is constrained (and afforded) by the repertoire of responses its 
> level (and complexity within that level) offers. The man and the cat 
> "jump", because they have legs and bones and muscles and such. The 
> amoeba pulls away using its own biological components.
> 
> Also, importantly, notice the key words in Pirsig's statement, "If it 
> had a nervous system it would act in a much more complex way to 
> overcome the poor quality". An amoeba lacks the components for a more 
> sophisticated response to this Dynamic Quality. It is bounded by the 
> repertoire of responses of its particular biological/inorganic 
> complexity. A "man" WOULD seek analogues, write songs about it, etc, 
> because AFTER the initial response to Dynamic Quality, "man" has a 
> repertoire of responses that DOES include a nervous system, as well 
> as social and intellectual responses.
> 
> Back to the hot stove example, Pirsig concludes, "Later he generates 
> static patterns of thought to explain the situation." First and 
> foremost is the Dynamic response, the "it's better here", a response 
> that certainly is dependent on the level/complexity of the pattern, 
> but also in the moments afterwards, these responses to Dynamic 
> Quality are mediated by the repertoire of responses available to the 
> pattern. Man writes music, cats plop down in warm sunlight, atoms 
> give off energy... these are all responses to Dynamic Quality, 
> responses limited by (and made possible by) the particular level of 
> evolution and level of complexity of the pattern in question.
> 
> As I said to Platt, it's not that anything "lost" the ability to 
> respond to Dynamic Quality, its that the increasing complexity and 
> emergent levels of evolution have brought about phenomenal NEW ways 
> higher patterns can respond to Dynamic Quality.
> 
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