From: mike99 (mike99@lascruces.com)
Date: Tue Dec 03 2002 - 14:00:41 MST
> --- mike99 <mike99@lascruces.com> wrote: > Mitch's
> post (excerpted below), together with his
> > earlier response on this
> > topical thread, point to the key reason, IMO, why
> > materialism is essential
> > to any realistic worldview. I would put it this way:
> >
> > No software without hardware.
Marc Geddes wrote:
> Let me ask you this question: Where does the
> 'hardware' exist? How could the 'hardware' be
> explained? The moment you have an explanation about
> something which is understandable to a rational mind
> the thing being 'explained' becomes indistinguishable
> from 'software'.
Mike LaTorra replies:
I don't see your argument above as in any way constituting a proof.
The hardware exists as matter embedded in space-time.
If that is indeed the lowest level of implementation (as I claim) then no
further explanation is possible.
...
> > So, to borrow and modify an old analogy: It's
> > turtles **almost** all the way
> > down, but at bottom it's physics.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Michael LaTorra
Marc Geddes wrote:
> But what explains the existence of 'physics' ?
> Postulating the existence of 'hardware' at the bottom
> always leaves something unexplained.
>
> Either one is forced to conclude that certain aspects
> of reality are simply unexplainable (which actually
> leads to logical contradictions) or else one has to
> dispense with the idea of 'hardware'.
Mike LaTorra replies:
Nothing explains the existence of physics. Why do you presume that
everything can or must be explained? Axioms cannot be explained; nor can the
fundamental parameters and relations of physics. They are what they are.
Logical contradictions abound in quantum physics and, indeed, in everyday
life. We can either accept these as necessary paradoxes, or perhaps we can
find deeper explanations of them. But we should not assume, IMO, that logic
necessarily trumps experience (including the empirical evidence of
scientific experiments).
Regards,
Michael LaTorra
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