[MD] Levels in electronic computers

[Andy Skelton]

Arlo to Ian:
> Personally, I dislike the notion of grounding the biological level in being
> "carbon-based" or something like that. I like the idea of seeing the fractal
> boundary between inorganic and organic as being something like "inorganic
> patterns that have evolved a mechanism for self-replication". This way very
> early microbes and virii are "organic" not because of their "composition"
> but because of their "activity" (of course, I argue that this distinction
> holds true for all the levels- not defined by "composition" but by
> "activity").

Activity, yes. A pattern's behavior (how it acts in the DQ stream) is
what distinguishes the levels of evolution.

The lines could have been drawn differently. They could have been
greater or fewer in number. Pirsig's levels are familiar, convenient,
and hopefully useful. I'd really like to get beyond nit-picking the
boundaries and talk about using the levels. We have all spent hours
zooming in on the Mandlebrot set. How about we zoom back out and do
something besides try to get each other to gaze at our own fractal
navels?

Andy