Re: virus: mortal souls, no such thing as matter etc.
owner-virus@maxwell.lucifer.com
Thu, 12 Dec 96 09:40:11 GMT
Matt Wagoner says:
>At 01:03 12/12/96 GMT, you wrote:
>>At 17:14 11/12/96 -0000, you wrote:
>>>Matt Waggoner wrote:
>>>>I agree that memes do influence us, the way we act and think,
>>>>but to say that we have no free will whatsoever implies that we have no
>>>>soul. I'm sure you can see the problems inherent in adopting that
>>>>particular philosophy.
>>>>
>>>>I know I don't like being told I have no soul.
>>>
>>>In what sense do you use the term "soul"? If you mean a spiritual entity
>>>that survives after death and all that, then I'm afraid you might be told
>>>the very thing you don't like being told quite often on this list.
>>
>>Is anyone else into the concept of having a soul, some level of existence
>>more abstract than memes and ideas, which DOESN'T persist after death? I
>>think it's quite an appealing concept. People are networks of subatomic
>>units which by their interactions give rise to atoms, which in THEIR
>>interactions, give rise to molecules, which in THEIR interactions give rise
>>to cells, which in THEIR interactions give rise to bodies, which by their
>>interactions give rise to memes, so... maybe ideas interacting give rise to
>>yet higher levels of interacting units. Just thought I'd run tha up the
>>flagpole, see if anyone saluted.
>
>Just out of curiosity, why did you reply to the same message with two
>separate responses?
Erm... I'm... er... I'm... trying to discourage people from considering me
to be
a unitary personality construct. Rather, I'm a set of memes which give rise
to
different social responses with different memetic/sensory input. Or something.
>That's an interesting idea (whole > sum of parts, applied to soul/memes)
>although it would get extremely theoretical in an extended debate.
Yup. Pure theory. But then, part of the deal is that, what with everything
being
an arrangement of subunits, then (certainly almost) everything becomes...
pattern rather than matter. I am a pattern of cells which = a pattern of
molecules which = a pattern of atoms...
>As for the rest of y'all's responses... that's exactly what I wanted to
hear.
:)
Oh. Cool.
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose (The more things change, the more
it's
a meme thing)
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