Date: Sun, 01 Jun 2003 13:25:55 +1100
From: hbone <hbone-AT-optonline.net>
Subject: Re: Systems and intelligence



Eric wrote,

> Hugh,
>
> The best way I know to answer you is with a fable.
>
> "On Earth as elsewhere, energy leads toward the most likely state, a
> kind of corpuscular soup, a cold chaos.  Negative energy combines
> energy, on the contrary, into differentiated systems, more complex ones,
> or let's say, more developed ones.  Development is not an invention made
> by Humans. Humans are an invention of development.  The hero of the
> fable is not the human species, but energy....what is the most
> efficient, the most complex."
>
> eric

Yes, one more grand narrative (fable) - addressor, addressee, referent(s).
But also a fable of Natures' order -  systems producing hurricanes, fires
and floods, cyclones, earthquakes, volcanic destruction.  Action without
human intervention obeying "laws" of Nature, whether intelligent or stupid
by human description.

Stories of something (energy) rather than nothing.  Neutrinos go thru human
bodies at every instant.  Neutrinos to be sent under the Alps from Geneva to
Italy ; details on the Internet.

What does it "mean" to "believe" or dis-believe these stories?  What effects
can human actions produce on natural systems?  What human "values",
political, ethical, aesthetic, are risked by human action or failure to
act?.  Each of the preceding words in quotes may have different meaning for
speakers/hearers, -  the quiescent energy of  linguistic obfuscation.

regards,
Hugh