Re: "analog computer" = useless hypothesis?

From: Ross A. Finlayson (raf@tiki-lounge.com)
Date: Sun Apr 08 2001 - 13:06:39 MDT


J. R. Molloy wrote:

> > "By the continuity of our culture we signify
> > that we are human. And all continuities are broken. We have lost our
> > immortality. We could grow three heads and thirty feet, and our skins
> > become blue scales, and so long as Homer and Michelangelo and Sophocles
> > live, mankind lives. And they are gone. If we were globes of green fire,
> > or red crusts on a rock, or shining bundles of wire, and still we
> > remembered who we had been, we would still be men."
> >
> > -- _Son of Man_ (1971)
> > Robert Silverberg
>
> Right, so by remembering that we had been infants, we would still be infants.
> By that same reckoning, we should *forget* that we had been infants, so that
> we *will not* still be infants, so that we can become mature humans... then
> forget that we had been mature humans... so that we can become transhumans,
> etc.
>
> Those who choose to remain as men cannot see beyond the crowds of mankind.
> Better to catch a single glimpse of the boundless universe beyond ideation
> than to live forever with Homer and Michelangelo and Sophocles in the museum
> of dead ideas.
>
> --J. R.
>
> Useless hypotheses:
> consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
> analog computing, cultural relativism
>
> Everything that can happen has already happened, not just once,
> but an infinite number of times, and will continue to do so forever.
> (Everything that can happen = more than anyone can imagine.)

Actually, we have memories, among other reasons, because of the persistent
chemicals in our brains which contribute to their electrochemical equilibriums.

Ross

--
Ross Andrew Finlayson
Finlayson Consulting
Ross at Tiki-Lounge: http://www.tiki-lounge.com/~raf/
"It's always one more."  - Internet multi-player computer game player



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:59:45 MDT