[MD] Levels in electronic computers

[Ian Glendinning]

Hi Magnus,

before moving on to the AI side of this (which I already agreed with)
a couple of preliminaries ... I really don't want to waste your time.

I was already calling the second level "organic" - living, like an
organism - in your exchange with Dan. Always been my habit. (This
level really is about life .... but as we continue, that's nothing
magical. Also the negative naming "inorganic" for the first level
means the first and fourth levels both begin with "I" which is an
inconvenience for abbreviations.)

I see your concern, you said ...
"none of that usual "magic of life" that is usually used to alienate
the 2nd level from the first .... We have to come up with something
better if we really want to keep that level."

You are concerned whether, if the organic level is entirely
"explicable" in terms of the inorganic (physical & chemical) level,
the organic living level is in any sense fundamental ... it is simply
contingent ?

I say, not necessarily. The level is still fundamental in a
metaphysical sense. Explaining the living in terms of the physical is
"too reductionist" .... logically / physically the explanation may be
complete and correct .... but it is not useful, it doesn't match with
how patterns in that level are experienced (and lived). I'm saying
life is qualitatively different from physics - a different nature.
(ditto all the levels - except socio-intellectual difficulties remain
...)

I can see fuzzy boundaries of chemistry and life, proto-life, clearly,
but the metaphysical choice to "define" life, set a boundary, is a
sign of a pragmatic philosophy. Call that contingent if you want - but
we don't need to lose (alienate) the value of the life.

I think this is important of we are to map A-Life and A-I to the MoQ.
(Which I already do ...)

Ian

On Mon, Jul 12, 2010 at 10:10 AM, Magnus Berg <McMagnus at home.se> wrote:
> Hi Andy
>
>> This thread about computers "supporting" MoQ levels above inorganic
>> has yanked me out of newbie lurk mode. My thoughts take two orthogonal
>> tracks. First, the "organic" level is not necessarily limited to or
>> defined by what we have found and classified as "life" in the
>> universe.