Louis Newstrom <lnewstro@bellsouth.net> Wrote:
>The key phrase here is "as far as the economy is concerned".
>When we are talking about identity and survival, most people want "
>as far as I am concerned".
That is exactly, precisely, what I was trying to say. I don't care if protoplasm
is destroyed because I am not two hundred pounds of protoplasm, I am a adjective.
> I do not believe that the laws of physics will distinguish between what
>you call "things" and "non-things".
What is the mass of beautiful? Tell me the position in space of the number eleven.
What is the temperature of swiftly? What is the entropy of red?
>>Me:
>>if you have two MP3 files of the same symphony on your computer and
>>you erase one file you are not poorer for it because nothing has been lost.
>I claim something has been lost, but you don't see it because your example
>is something that can be easily duplicated. What if the music industry
>succeeds in making uncopyable music files.
The premise of the thought experiment was that you could make a copy of
anything, if you remove that then all bets are off and we are back to the world
we all live in now. Today there is two hundred pounds of protoplasm that I
am particularly found of because right now it the only matter in the universe
that behaves in a johnclarkian way, but that need not always be true.
>After all, I do have a natural clone walking around, but I still believe that
>something would be lost if one of us were destroyed.
Come on now play fair, we both know a twin is not a copy.
John K Clark jonkc@att.net
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:23 MDT