This a great forum for researching human nature.

[woof!]

Not being a Cartesian dualist, I wouldn't know.

--Toto

 

[Rudy(CA)]

EE, would I be correct in saying that you are a follower of Cartesian dualism?

A long tradition in philosophy has held, with René Descartes, that the mind must be a non-bodily entity: a soul or mental substance. This thesis is called ‘substance dualism’ (or ‘Cartesian dualism’) because it says that there are two kinds of substance in the world, mental and physical or material. One reason for believing this is the belief that the soul, unlike the body, is immortal. Another reason for believing it is that we have free will, and this seems to require that the mind is a non-physical thing, since all physical things are subject to the laws of nature. To say that the mind (or soul) is a mental substance is not to say that the mind is made up of some non-physical kind of stuff or material. The use of the term ‘substance’ is rather the traditional philosophical use: a substance is an entity which has properties and persists through change in its properties. A tiger, for instance, is a substance, whereas a hurricane is not. To say that there are mental substances— individual minds or souls—is to say that there are objects which are non-material or non-physical, and these objects can exist independently of physical objects, like a person’s body. These objects, if they exist, are not made of non-physical ‘stuff’: they are not made of ‘stuff’ at all..

For myself, I am more comfortable with the concept espoused by frisbeetarianism.

 

[woof!]

"woof", not "roof".

 

[woof!]

EE, you'll just have to get used to the fact that some of us around here have a place in our lives for levity. Or levitation, which ever comes first.

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

Hi, still lurking. It was posted -->An amoeba does a creditable job of slithering here and there, and it doesn't even have a nervous system or muscles.
*********
I had to work on this in premed. How does an amoeba track and engulf a food particle?

Don Jose de La Mancha

 

[woof!]

Hi, still lurking. It was posted -->An amoeba does a creditable job of slithering here and there, and it doesn't even have a nervous system or muscles.
*********
I had to work on this in premed. How does an amoeba track and engulf a food particle?

Don Jose de La Mancha

With short-distance locators (SRL's) which really are molecular discriminators; and engulfers. They didn't teach this in premed?

Just funnin' ya, Real. Back then they knew a lot less than they do now.

The whole process of knowing what garbage to eat and where to spit it out is part of intracellular maintenance at the molecular level itself, and a fundamental issue of neurodegeneration when garbage collection cannot keep up with garbage production. Human bodies wear out: for the sake of the continuation of life as a whole, it is essential that they do so. Like an old car, the piston rings wear out, used oil is not efficiently scavenged back into the crankcase, what remains contaminates the combustion process, and the cops (north of the border) give you a smog ticket. Eventually it becomes so expensive to maintain the car that it has to go to the junkyard. The materials get recycled as tuna fish cans in Brazil. At least I figure that's what happened to my Honda Civic that got stolen. EE will be pleased to hear that the engine got recycled into a legitimately scrapped Honda body and sold to an innocent customer and at last report is propelling a human being and perhaps more, around Tucson.

Getting that registration and liability mess straightened out was a real mess, especially since Texas has taken everything automotive and split it up among the maximum number of government jurisdictions as was possible, guaranteeing that civil servants who actually want to do their job well stand little chance of succeeding. Why it is this way now I don't know (being a newcomer settled into the gerrymandered west end of Texas). I suppose it got that way in order to guarantee that an "intermediary" could solve the bureaucracy's problem for a price. The time-honored system of Texas justice has fallen apart in El Paso because the Feds have moved into town as a matter of national security. A corruptible government in El Paso is an invitation for the Sinaloa Cartel or its successors to bring peace to Juarez (at a very high price) by bringing the drug wars across the fence that's 3 miles from my front door. It is not my nature to get the warm fuzzies when the acronym "FBI" is invoked, but here in El Paso they have a socially necessary job to do which keeps them from being distracted from the temptation to go after harmless targets simply because they happen to be easy targets.

But back to amoebas. Can they dowse? Depends on what you think dowsing is.

--Toto

 

[woof!]

"woof", not "roof".

Ah, I see.

You're "brown bagging" it then.

Who needs a virtual plastic fork when you can spoon, eh?

Remember that Beach Boys song, "Up on the Woof"?

Sorry, Judy, in my moment of "up on the wolf" speculation there I forgot how much younger you are than I am. Not fair of me to ask if you remember Beach Boys.

Birthdate test: "What's a Sputnik?" Answer has to come faster than a Google fakeout.

--Toto

 

[EE THr]

woofie---

Human bodies wear out: for the sake of the continuation of life as a whole, it is essential that they do so.--Toto

Is that the new branch of "science," called philosophical psychology?

But wait. That wouldn't be "scientific," would it? It would be, umm, philosophy guesswork.

Oh well, psychology, philosophy, guesswork---they're all the same anyway, right?

 

[woof!]

EE, people who do science do guesswork. Those who don't do guesswork have to choose which stone idol they're gonna worship.

Toto

 

[EE THr]

woofie---

EE, people who do science do guesswork. Those who don't do guesswork have to choose which stone idol they're gonna worship.

Toto

Yeah, but real scientists who do guesswork, call it the trial and error method, not fact.





When you don't know where you're goin', it don't matter which road you take....

 

[woof!]

EE, the trial and error method is the scientific method. The other method is the claimant method.

--Toto

PS: I should explain how the principle of "intelligent design" works. If I don't do it in the 21st century the boss will fire me, and if I hadn't done it 5 years ago my posts would not be exercising your allegedly jelloblob brain today. And you yourself are the one who alleged that about your brain, in this very thread.

 

[EE THr]

woofie---

It doesn't matter what you call it---guesswork is guesswork. It's not fact until proven.

You seem to have a problem with premature eguessulation.







When you don't know where you're goin', it don't matter which road you take....

 

[woof!]

EE, today you did reproduction with variation and selection, because it did matter what road you took.

If on the other hand you own and operate the universe, you're delivered from the curse of uncertainty, you can take any road you like with guaranteed success (yourself being in charge of such matters, etc.).

--Toto

 

[EE THr]

woofie---

Do you own and operate the Universe?

 

[EE THr]

woofie---


When you don't know where you're goin', it don't matter which road you take....



What makes you think I'm talking about me?

 

[EE THr]

woofie---

PS: I should explain how the principle of "intelligent design" works. If I don't do it in the 21st century the boss will fire me, and if I hadn't done it 5 years ago my posts would not be exercising your allegedly jelloblob brain today. And you yourself are the one who alleged that about your brain, in this very thread.

Well, what are you waiting for?

 

[EE THr]

And the blob of jello with synapses analogy, is essentially true.

 

[woof!]

It evidently is....... although perhaps not in all cases.

--Toto

 

[EE THr]

When you don't know where you're going....

 

[woof!]

EE, the Universe is fairly consistent in its testimony on where both of us are going. We have a lot in common!

--Toto