Originally Posted by
Syn7
Ok, but how do you know that organic matter makes spontaneous "decisions" due to no external forces? Immediate or otherwise.
Well that is very much the key difference between organised and inert matter. External forces may be involved, but the laws of inert matter are broken. Are the reactions still equal and opposite in the case of organic matter? They are delayed and the level of reaction is no longer determined and calculable. Stimulus-response is very different from action-reaction. On being struck all matter will react out of necessity. But a stimulus will not evoke a necessary response.... If a spider lands on your hand right now, you may not do anything, or you may completely freak out. Even if it were predictable it is still a spontaneous release of energy, there is no input of energy from the spider, the trigger to explosive action is from the nervous system.
Organic matter gathers energy. This energy is then stored. Then there is a complex and highly coordinated control mechanism for releasing this energy.
This is completely unlike inert matter. There is energy stored in inert matter but it is not gathered. There is no coordinated system of release.
In the case of photosynthesis how can I avoid calling it 'purposeful' gathering of energy?
Think of even a simple admittedly scripted action, you see a fly and you swat it. Its not the same as a billiard ball colliding with another billiard ball where energy is conserved. But IS it reducible to many many billiard ball collisions on a tiny scale? Well the phenomenon of 'memory' makes this calculation incomprehensible. The only way you could do it is to create a computer that lives through and experiences those exact same memories from the same perspective over the same time, but that computer would just be the ACTUAL person. SO it can't be simplified. But we ARE that person, we can simply ask ourselves. What do you feel?
Last edited by RenDaHai; 07-06-2014 at 05:14 PM.
問「武」。曰:「克。」未達。曰:「勝己之私之謂克。」