Re: What is special about humans?

[Jerry Zhu <***>]

Hi Steve,

Good points. What you raised worth thinking.  There
are unicellular life that is stationery. Life simply
evolves into a different direction other than moble.

There is an interesting correlation between the world
brought forth and the structure of nervous system.
That is the larger the world brought forth, the more
centralized the nervous system, and the more advanced
the evolution. 

I forgot to mention that social systems, as M&V
defined as third order autopoiesis, bring forth a
world of five dimensions.  The more centralized the
decision making the longer the time dimension in
strategic plan. In this sense today's government and
business organizations need to devolve by redefining
decision processes and power relations. Look like
management and social science are not current thread
of discussion.  But enjoy everything here.

Jerry









--- Steve Johnson <***> wrote:

> Jerry,
> 
> What is the meaning of the word "dimension" here? Do
> you mean "dimension" as in physical space-time
> dimension? In that case I can imagine that animals
> do
> not experience time the way humans do. That is they
> do
> not have an explicit awareness of past and future
> and
> time's directionality. I can also see that a plant
> is
> "one dimensional" in a spatial sense. But why is a
> unicellular mobile animal is less dimensional than a
> metacellular one? Or do you use the term "dimension"
> in the sense of some abstract "dimension of
> existence"?
> 
> - Steve
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> --- Jerry Zhu <***> wrote:
> 
> > Hi Steve,
> > 
> > Have been in the background (really enjoyed) for a
> > long while and finally through some pennies to
> give
> > a
> > shot.  
> > 
> > I would like to approach your question from
> > autopoiesis (M&V) point of view. As M&V define the
> > function of nervous system as to bright forth a
> > world,
> > we can compare different kinds of species by the
> > world
> > they bring forth.  Along this line, I classify
> four
> > kinds of species in terms of four different kinds
> of
> > world brought forth.  
> > 
> > Plants: one dimensional
> > Bacteria: two dimensional
> > Organisms: three dimesional
> > Humans: four dimensional with the fourth one is
> > time.
> > 
> > The size of the world brought forth by the species
> > determines the capability of that species to
> > comprehend and construct its environment.  the
> world
> > we brough forth is the one we can experience.  We
> > form
> > hypothesis to describe worlds we can not
> experience.
> > 
> > These worlds are outside of the four dimesional
> > particular to human and could be never
> > comprehensible.
> > 
> > 
> > --- Steve Johnson <***>
> > wrote:
> > 
> > > In thinking about "Natural Law" I came to wonder
> > > about what key factors set humans aside from
> other
> > > animals to make the universe comprehensible to
> > them.
> > > Two possibilities come to mind:
> > >  
> > > 1) Nothing. The difference is merely
> quantitative.
> > > That is, human circle of understanding is larger
> > > than that of a dog, which in turn is larger than
> > > that of a worm and so on in an unbroken
> continuum.
> > > For example, we have General Relativity as a
> model
> > > of Natural phenomenon we call gravity, while the
> > dog
> > > has a model that if it catches a spherical
> object
> > > and brings it to this creature, the creature
> will
> > > give it a sugar cube that it enjoys. In other
> > words,
> > > humans are a better anticipatory system but only
> > in
> > > degree, not in kind. 
> > >  
> > > 2)  Human mind represents a new kind of
> emergence
> > > different in the universe's hierarchy of
> > structure.
> > > If so, what are the factors that made this
> > emergence
> > > possible. The only one I could think of is
> > language.
> > >  
> > > Any opinions on this?
> > >  
> > > - Steve
> > > 
> > >
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