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Hey Judith,
I didn't really expect a
response to that post. I was just sharing with you guys some of the things
that are vying for attention in my own mind. I'll try to respond to some
of your questions and comments though.
Bayesian statistics
I know that there are some here that are better
qualified to explain Bayes's Theorem than I am. In fact, I won't even
try. I only dabble in the math as of now. However this site, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/bayes-theorem/ seems
to me to give a fairly decent overview of the subject.
The (M,R)-systems
I can't help but try to understand Robert in terms
of things that I am already familiar with. I'm not a blank slate.
Unfortunately this may mean that I have some things to unlearn, which seems more
difficult to me than learning something anew. So for instance I am still
stuck on trying figure out how to visualize metabolism. At this point I'm
wanting to understand it in terms of transduction. Transduction is defined
in my dictionary as the transfer of energy from one system to
another.
The three aspects of agency
I suppose there are many ways that I could go about
developing this more. Let me say from the beginning, however, that I don't
know why only three. It just seems like 'enough' (intuitively sufficient),
and resonates with many other modes of analysis that involve living
systems. I, like others, use the word 'agency' because it's a relatively
neutral term and isn't as loaded as the word 'life'.
Rasmussen and others are trying to induce (or maybe
more like force or insure) emergence by coupling three functional aspects.
However, I will not employ their development here. Nor will I point to
Freud and his 1) id, 2) superego and 3) ego. Nor will I point to the
historian or social engineer trying to understand societies in terms of their 1)
political, 2) economic and 3) military aspects. Rather I will use a
development that I picked up in a book some years ago entitled "The Principles
of Seduction". In that book the authors argued that when people fall in
love it's because they have affirmed three aspects of each other's identity: 1)
sexual, 2) ideal and 3) social identities. They further discriminate as 1)
male/female, 2) conventional/unconventional, and 3) intro/extrovert. For
instance I'd like to think of myself as an introverted, macho male who is fairly
well balanced in terms of being conventional or unconventional. (Be
careful that none of you affirm this of me, for if you do then I may
fall in love with you.)
I gave that book away, so I can't reference it
right now. However I believe that the authors were psychologists who
interviewed many couples to find out why they had fallen in love with one
another. They found that the responses generally fell into one or more of
the three categories.
entailment and conditional
statements
I think that you're right. This is a huge area.
Again it's just among the things that are vying for attention in my mind.
I don't feel that I am a particularly bright person, but I like to think that I
have a nose for powerful ideas. I gather from what you said that this
subject line makes you want to launch. I hope that you will. If...
it makes you want to then... I hope that you will.
Aristotelian analysis
Other than my momentary bafflement at formal
causation, I think that I fairly well understand this. I'll probably come
back to formal causation at a later date.
analytic equations vs. algebraic
relations
Tim has pointed this important distinction out to
me. When and if I become ready to tackle it, I know that Dr. Aloisius
Louie is the man to go to. (Tim told me that too. Thank you Tim.) If
I wish to understand Robert Rosen's work then I may not need to understand the
math, but I may want to. Incidentally, building a house often entails the
use of a hammer.
the original emergence of life/induced emergence
of life
I know that we can never be certain about all the
details of life's original emergence (yes, I meant on Earth). But we can
and do form beliefs about how the event went down. We can even
state those beliefs directly and have those beliefs confirmed and disconfirmed
over time as we gather more evidence. For instance I believe (yes it's a
belief) that life arose indigenously (as opposed to panspermia). I even
think that Dan may have a fairly decent outline of the thing only I believe that
it happened at depth in the Earth's water soaked and circulating
innards. I also believe that there has never been such a thing as a lonely
organism on this our good Earth (though I don't subscribe to the Gaia
hypothesis).
I didn't expect to post this long. As I said,
I feel like all I really need to worry about this season is about what gifts I
will be able to give to whom. I'm still not done with all my shopping and
this posting has entailed that I spend more time on it than I was
anticipating. I hope that all you guys get what you've been wanting.
I've not asked for anything so I'm certain to be pleased. :)
David
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