Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Evolution -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (65156)	1/25/2015 10:15:14 PM
From: Solon	1 Recommendation Recommended By 2MAR$ Respond to of 69300

"it is not clear how certain organisations of matter manage to be aware – of impingements of energy, and later of objects" The oldest life forms in existence have this awareness. Keeping in mind that definitions are arbitrary, still it must be admitted that even bacteria sense changes in temperature, light, density, and other forms of energy, and they "respond" to various environmental stimuli like we do on facebook: Like or dislike. The point is that your attempt to elevate humans into some special arena simply fails. Many creatures have far superior attributes than have we. Yes we are different. We are what we are: Still helpless in the air, in the water, and on the land--inferior to the eagle, the dolphin, the lion. Yet we have overcome our inferiority through the capacity to learn and to communicate our knowledge to our offspring. But there are some humans who cannot learn and who cannot use tools and who would die without constant care--lowly rats and vermin would overcome them with little effort. We should be happy and proud to be who and what we are. But we should not be arrogant. ALL life is related. And once our finest tool, the brain, was no more useful than a football to a canary. But we consumed a lot of DHA and grew our brains. Will we ever survive as long as other life forms have survived? The odds are against it. Our very complexity makes us very vulnerable--much more vulnerable than the cockroaches who have simple tastes and needs...

To: Brumar89 who wrote (65156)	1/25/2015 10:27:00 PM
From: 2MAR$	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69300

"it is not clear how certain organisations of matter manage to be aware – of impingements of energy, and later of objects" The oldest life forms in existence have this awareness. Keeping in mind that definitions are arbitrary, still it must be admitted that even bacteria sense changes in temperature, light, density, and other forms of energy, and they "respond" to various environmental stimuli like we do on facebook: Like or dislike. The point is that your attempt to elevate humans into some special arena simply fails. Many creatures have far superior attributes than have we. Yes we are different. We are what we are: Still helpless in the air, in the water, and on the land--inferior to the eagle, the dolphin, the lion. Yet we have overcome our inferiority through the capacity to learn and to communicate our knowledge to our offspring. But there are some humans who cannot learn and who cannot use tools and who would die without constant care--lowly rats and vermin would overcome them with little effort.

To: Brumar89 who wrote (65156)	1/25/2015 10:28:32 PM
From: 2MAR$	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69300

The epigraph is taken from Plato's The Republic, part of which reads: Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eye are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye. —Plato, The Republic (The novel ' Flowers from Algernon' opens with that epigraph, discouraging people from laughing at those who are perplexed or weak of vision, your sunday school sermons then & now were not original or ever were)