[MD] On Pirsig's letter to Paul Turner

[Dan Glover]

Craig,

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 2:25 AM, Craig Erb <craig_erb at ymail.com> wrote:
> [dang lover]
>> the presence of DNA seems a good (the only?) way to separate inorganic patterns from biological patterns.
>
> IMHO DNA is an inorganic pattern [as is carbon], so they are inappropriate for distinguishing the two respective levels.

Dan:
I tend to disagree with this. A genetic code is peculiar to the
biological level whereas carbon is not.

> What makes something alive (a biological pattern) is its experience with its environment.

Dan:
You know your own experience. But how do you know another biological
pattern's experience? For instance, how do you know what scrambled
eggs taste like to a cockroach?

Thanks,

Dan

http://www.danglover.com