From: John K Clark (johnkclark@fastmail.fm)
Date: Mon Mar 10 2008 - 13:38:57 MDT
"Randall Randall" <randall@randallsquared.com>
> Only if you believe in 'red', and '2'.
The trouble is I do believe in 'red', and '2' and even the number PI.
> That is, in dualism
Sticks and stones will break my bones but [….]
> ideas separate from their material instances
And I believe in that too.
> souls, not to put too fine a point on it.
I must admit you are not entirely wrong. Information is as close as you
can get to the traditional concept of the soul and still remain within
the scientific method. Consider the similarities:
1) The soul is non material and so is information.
2) It's difficult to pin down a unique physical location for the soul,
and the same is true for information.
3) The soul is the essential, must have, part of consciousness, exactly
the same situation is true for information.
4) The soul is immortal and so, probably, is information, now even
Hawking says information can not be destroyed.
However it is important to note there are also important differences.
1) A soul is unique but information can be duplicated.
2) The soul is and will always remain unfathomable, but information is
understandable, in fact, information is the ONLY thing that is
understandable.
3) Information unambiguously exists, I don't think anyone would deny
that, but if the soul exists it will never be proven scientifically.
John K Clark
-- John K Clark johnkclark@fastmail.fm -- http://www.fastmail.fm - Send your email first class
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Jul 17 2013 - 04:01:02 MDT