[FRIAM] Getting You Libertarians' Goats

[thompnickson2 at gmail.com]

Jon,

Is a steam governor a case of downward causation?

This question will reveal, no doubt, that I don't understand  your previous
answer, but perhaps others will explain it to me. 

I am always troubled by the notion of "self-assembly" since the self that is
assembling is never, by definition, the self that is assembled. 

Perhaps I am getting tangled up in words again. 

n

Nicholas Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology
Clark University
ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/
 


-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of jon zingale
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2020 2:01 PM
To: friam at redfish.com
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Getting You Libertarians' Goats

Nick,

Let's say I have a language designed to work with sticks, where for
instance, it makes sense to name certain relations *Triangle*. Additionally,
let's assume that the language is detailed enough to include less obvious
relations such as those which relate sticks to trees to soil and water.
Would it be cheap to narrowly define *downward causation* as the
manipulation of the world in accordance with this language to produce new
sticks?

Consider as another example when one manipulates charge in bulk using analog
filters. Here, a circuit designer may not need to know about spin or
superposition or a lot of other details about the universe. In fact, the
designer may not know how to write a "mid-frequency ranged filter" if they
were only given a quantum mechanical view of the world. They may, however,
know how to build such a filter if they are given appropriately shaped
conductive surfaces and coils.

My apologies in advance if this characterization (that of reducing *downward
causation* to manipulation of a domain-specific language) is horribly
flawed, but I spent this much time writing a response. So, there.



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