RoR: Forum

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Friday, September 28, 2007 - 10:42pm

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LOL, I've been quoted. Yay for me! :)

But on a serious note, the reasoning I concluded on that point also applies to pyrite, in that its crystalization pattern can be 'impressed' onto other substrates. One radical theory for abiogenesis supposes that early proto-forms of DNA were originated as amino acids that were manipulated by the proximity of crystalizing pyrite, thus kicking off the organizing pattern of a non-living process to give way to a living one. Now, no one has tried this in an experiment, and I'm betting it's wrong, but it is still interesting to note how Nature has many systems open by default, especially our Universe (if you've read anything about M-Theory and gravity).

-- Brede

Post 1

Saturday, September 29, 2007 - 8:02pm

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Reductive Materialism Refuted & The Primordial Bubble Bath

This simple quote contains a powerful idea. The essence of an existent may defined by its form, not its substance. Some material substrate must exist for any physical phenomenon to occur, but it may be any suitable material substrate, and it is the form which determines the essence. A ball can be rubber, ivory, plastic or metal, yet each will roll, while a lump of rubber, ivory, plastic or metal of the same mass, temperature and so forth will not. As a more important example, the thoughts in my mind are conveyed as neural impulses to the motor centers of my brain, impelling the muscles of my hands to type the words on my laptop which travel as packets over the internet through my ISP to RoR to your ISP and the your interface, where your eyes see those words and perhaps comprehend the concepts behind them. The concepts are the same, whether I use a Macintosh or a PC, whether I hunt and peck or touch-type, whether the data is transmitted over copper or fiber-optic, whether you read my words with brown eyes or blue, or braille or a synthetic voice interface.

The materialist holds that all is determined and meaningfully reducible to the lowest organizational level. Yet the fire can continue to burn, no matter what the fuel, so long as some fuel exists. The mass of my laptop, the atomic weight of the elements comprising the transmission wires sending you this message, none of the material details matter except in so far as they embody the proper form. No one-to-one or determined relationship holds that I pass the flame of my thoughts to you using any certain fuel.

Ted Keer

PS I believe that the pyrite hypothesis may provide a plausible thesis for the energy source of early life. But life did not arise from single molecules, but rather from oil micelles (bubbles) that spontaneously spontaneously form in any body of water with disolved lipids, ultimately absorbing chemicals from the water around them and spontaneously splitting upon reaching a certain diameter. We are the descendants of the primordial bubble bath. See the work of Stuart Kauffman, especially The Origins of Order.