ASpidle@aol.com asked
> Ok Tim, you know-it-all smarty pants, tell me how you "explain the data" of
> emergent phenomena like life and self awareness?
Everything that life does is explained to my satisfaction by DNA and its enzymatic and other consequences. The diversity of life is explained to my satisfaction by natural selection. Self awareness is not yet explained to my satisfaction, though i think that vehicle theories do the job adequately
see
<http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/bbs/Archive/bbs.obrien.html>
Until someone comes up with something inexplicable (like Einstein did by imagining that the speed of light is constant in all reference frames), these theories appear adequate.
i remain confident, that as in Einstein's complete replacement of Newton, the supplementary theories will be even more reductionistic.
cheers,
tim