[MD] Levels in electronic computers

[Ian Glendinning]

Krim,

I'l give you brittle in the sense that any one definition can't stand
firm as "the definition" ... but the existence of two levels stands up
to the test.

You are just arguing the definition of the word organic .... it means
like an organism ... carbon biology is just the form that has arisen
on earth so far. ie A-Life will be "life" if it is organic ....
whether the "biology" is carbon-based or not or organic patterns in
some other medium (that is the "other thing" we're talking about).
It's that definition of organic we've been debating against Magnus
"3D-Fit" view.

The word organic has come to mean carbon-chemistry-of-life simply by
association with  "life as we know it". The word itself is clearly an
adjective for living properties.

Ian

On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 5:59 PM, Krimel <Krimel at krimel.com> wrote:
> [Ian]
> Can't agree with "brittle" ... they are real in a pragmatic sense.
> That is useful if defined discretely, and that discrete definition may
> move with a different basis for defining it. (Hence the current
> discussion in this thread about what makes the biological level.)
>
> [Krimel]
> I'll stick with brittle in the sense that they break down when pressed. They
> are not discrete and attempts to make them so are strained at best.
>
> With respect to the notion that biology plays any role inside the computer;
> that just doesn't fly. Biology depends, arises from, exists as a result of
> organic (carbon) chemistry. If we ever elect to extend the definition of
> "life" to include anything outside of carbon based complexity that might be
> another thing but using life and biology in this context at this point is
> meaningless.
>
> Moq_Discuss mailing list
> Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
> http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
> Archives:
> http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
> http://moq.org/md/archives.html
>