[FRIAM] Getting You Libertarians' Goats

[Prof David West]

Nick,

*" 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."*

By what definition? Your monist view that the self lacks ontological status in the first place?

davew


On Wed, Oct 28, 2020, at 5:48 PM, thompnickson2 at gmail.com wrote:
> 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.
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Sent from: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/
> 
> - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. .
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6  bit.ly/virtualfriam un/subscribe
> http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
> archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/
> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ 
> 
> 
> - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. .
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6  bit.ly/virtualfriam
> un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
> archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/
> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ 
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/attachments/20201029/e9a81913/attachment.html>