[MD] understanding pattern

[MarshaV]

Hmmm.  The pattern is the "cause" and the "effect"; the cause is not other than the effect, and the effect is not other than the cause; and my "self" is the flow of pattern:  "extended, interdependent and self-reinforcing processes known as evolution."



On Mar 17, 2012, at 4:43 AM, MarshaV <valkyr at att.net> wrote:

> 
> "Self-protection begins at the beginnings of life, manifesting in the processes of attraction and aversion that are implicitly based upon the distinction between self and non-self. At the most basic level of life, single-cellular organisms distinguish between what is threatening and what is beneficial to them in their environment, aggressively repulsing the one and engulfing and absorbing the other. This discrimination of semiporous membranes is a primary prerequisite of life. Without it, single-cellular life forms would never have survived and gradually developed into more complex and multicellular organisms such as our present species, homo sapiens. 
> 
> "We are all descended, through the extended processes of evolution, from those creatures whose successive transformations produced successful biological organisms. This occurred through the processes of differential reproductive success, in which those organisms that reproduce more prolifically over successive generations pass on more of their heritable xvii characteristics than those who reproduce less. The theory of evolution thus depicts a positive feedback loop in which those specific behavioral patterns that lead to greater reproductive success are steadily reinforced over extended periods of time. As biological creatures, we all therefore embody the cumulative results of whichever behaviors facilitated more reproductively successful interactions between our forebears and their natural and social environments. That is to say that the characteristics we embody today reflect, for the most part, behaviors that have successfully furthered their own reproduction in the past.
> 
> "Chief among these behavioral patterns are the physical and mental capabilities that allow us to acquire food and shelter, and the cognitive and emotional wherewithal necessary for reproducing and raising offspring. In other words, the will to preserve personal existence, a desire for those activities that lead to reproduction, and sufficient attachment to the people and things necessary to achieve these objectives are all essential for producing, preserving and re-producing human life. That these drives, this thirst for life, are constitutive of the very form of existence we embody right here and now follows from the simple yet profound postulate at the heart of evolutionary theory: what has been more (re)productive in the past is more plentiful in the present. These include as well, of course, our acute social sensitivities, our abilities to think, feel and empathize, to wonder and to worry, to love and to hate, to compete and to cooperate; none of these are, in theory, wholly outside the broad scope of the "extended, interdependent and self-reinforcing processes known as evolution."
> 
> 
> (William S. Waldron,'Common Ground, Common Cause: Buddhism and 
>        Science on the Afflictions of Self-Identity'). 
> 
> 
> http://www.gampoabbey.org/documents/Waldron-CommonGround.pdf 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 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