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Author Topic:   Is there a border dividing life from non-life?
NosyNed
Member
Posts: 8996
From: Canada
Joined: 04-04-2003


Message 80 of 132 (136769)
08-25-2004 11:44 AM
Reply to: Message 78 by sidelined
08-25-2004 9:45 AM


an important disagreement
The whole is not greater than the sum of its parts.
I think this is incorrect. The whole is very much more than the sum of it's parts. "Life" may be difficult to define in the same way that consciousness is because they are both emergent properties.
I agree, of course, that when we drill down we get nothing but chemical processes. However, we label whatever property it is that emerges at some level of complexity "life" but no one individual process is "alive". This is a match to what goes on in our brain. There is no consciousness anywhere in there that we can point to but it emerges from all the processes going on in there.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 78 by sidelined, posted 08-25-2004 9:45 AM sidelined has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 81 by Mammuthus, posted 08-25-2004 12:11 PM NosyNed has not replied
 Message 82 by Loudmouth, posted 08-25-2004 12:50 PM NosyNed has not replied
 Message 83 by lfen, posted 08-25-2004 1:42 PM NosyNed has replied
 Message 85 by sidelined, posted 08-25-2004 11:24 PM NosyNed has replied

  
NosyNed
Member
Posts: 8996
From: Canada
Joined: 04-04-2003


Message 84 of 132 (136809)
08-25-2004 3:09 PM
Reply to: Message 83 by lfen
08-25-2004 1:42 PM


Re: Consciousness and emergent property?
Nope, I don't know enough to carry on much of a conversation. And I don't want to play mystical word games.

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 Message 83 by lfen, posted 08-25-2004 1:42 PM lfen has not replied

  
NosyNed
Member
Posts: 8996
From: Canada
Joined: 04-04-2003


Message 86 of 132 (136946)
08-26-2004 2:01 AM
Reply to: Message 85 by sidelined
08-25-2004 11:24 PM


Re: an important disagreement
Of course it is based on the simpler behavior of the component parts. That's pretty much my understanding of what emergent means.

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 Message 85 by sidelined, posted 08-25-2004 11:24 PM sidelined has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 87 by Brad McFall, posted 08-26-2004 1:04 PM NosyNed has not replied

  
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