User talk:Escuerdo
From EvoWiki
- The Gods Themselves - I like that book too, though it's not my favorite. Especially that not-so-bright but successful scientist is very cute :) --tk (t) 11:26, 21 Jun 2005 (BST)
Tex
Sorry, I was going to reply this morning but put it to the side to check up on tex. The wiki software does support tex, but only with another piece of software installed, so I'll get onto the server owner about it and see if I can get it going. Joe D (t) 23:10, 22 Jun 2005 (BST)
User Name
I was wondering what exactly I type to get my user name to come up like you were suggesting I do. PhoteK 04:49, 24 Jun 2005 (BST)
Nevermind I know what types it out for me. --PhoteK
Materialism
I was wondering what materialist say about the following. Dr. Chopra writes that quantum physicists have proven through radioactive isotope studies that 98% of the atoms in your body are replaced within one year. I have also read that about every 7 years our whole physical body (cells) is replaced. Although changes occur in the way we view certain things or maybe the way we behave, we remain the same person. Although every 7 years my entire physical body is replaced, I remain the same person. I was wondering, from a materialist point of view, how and why this is possible. This also brings to mind HeLa cells, and wether or not you would consider Henrietta Lane to be alive. The point is, if I am just material, and the cells that make me up today, are not the same cells that will make me up in 7 years, why am I not a different person. I am not saying that the cells will not have the same information and function, but they will not be the same exact cells. Also, I think most people would say Henrietta Lane has died regardless of wether or not she still has living cells. --PhoteK
There's lots of hazy language there. What would make you a "different person"? In a sense, you are a different person at every moment of your life. You evolve with time in several ways. You seemed to touch on the answer to your question, though. If I understand correctly, you're asking what the unique common thread that ties all of these slightly different people together is. Why, that is, do they identify as a single self through time?
You touched on one of two answers to such a question:
- Information. Your mind stores memories. This information is part of the same growing collection of memories. By analogy, imagine a collection of notes. You take them and copy them into another notebook adding some information and taking some out. These would be the "same" notes in the same sense that you're the "same person" (note that the replacement of matter and of memories occurs on different timescales).
- Continuity. There's no drastic replacement of all the matter or memories in your body at once.
Also, I must say that I'm a little curious as to why "quantum physicists" would be doing studies on metabolism rather than, say, biologists. People don't need to call in a quantum physicist every time they do work with radioactive isotopes. Also, I have no idea who "Dr. Chopra" is (our old friend Deepak, perhaps?).
I do find it interesting that you mentioned quantum physics in this context, given that one of its consequences is that elementary particles are not just interchangeable, but identical. In that sense, it'd have no real meaning to say that one had "different" electrons and nucleons in one's body than before. Hence, in this context, if you replaced every atom in one's body with identical atoms, you wouldn't just have an identical system, you'd have "the same" system insofar as the phrase "the same" is meaningful.
By the way, I hope these are really just questions, because this has the distinct feel of baiting to initiate a lengthy debate on materialism.
Also, please don't forget to sign. --Escuerdo (talk)
Henrietta Lacks has a larger biomass now then when she was alive with all her HeLa cells that are around the world. Yet, I don't think many people would argue that Henrietta Lacks is alive. If I had two knives that were exactly the same, one in my left hand and one in my right hand, would you say that the one in my left hand is the one in my right hand and vice versa. Whenever I asked about being the same person, I realized that people change their views on things and the way they act often, yet there is still the same "center of consciousness". When I asked why we are the same person, I basically meant, that we are the same person "behind the wheel" so to speak. By the way, were you reffering to the process of Quantum teleportation? I don't know who Dr. Chopra is, out of all the articles talking about this, she/he was the only one I recall having a name I could quote. PhoteK
The confusion over whether Henrietta Lacks is alive just makes it clearer that there's more to personal existence than life: namely organization. Sure, there are lots of cells that have her genes, but that's not what "she" is. "She" isn't even a well-defined concept, but it's held together by common information and continuity.
I'm not sure what you mean by the "person 'behind the wheel'" to tell you the truth. Calling one "the same" is certainly a convenient concept due to continuity and memory, but I don't think its meaning extends too far beyond being a matter of convenience.
I was not referring to quantum teleportation, though that's a closely related topic. I was referring to the fact that, as a consequence of quantum mechanics, the notion of labelling a particle becomes meaningless in a strict sense, and one may refer only to "an" electron. Of course, one may effectively separate them such that they are, say, "mostly" trapped in different potential wells (which one may label) and hence effectively separated. But, strictly speaking, there's a certain likelihood of an electron's existence anywhere, and which electron it is is indeterminable even in principle. --Escuerdo (talk)
Thank you Escuerdo! However, if you look very closely I did put sources on my article of where the YEC claims come from. I can used them as references if you want me to. Never the less I'll put in more reference on them to both YEC fantasy and scientific reality. I'm doing them right now. Now I have work to do.
Escuerado, I've just got done putting in more reference to websites that either promote the claims or refute them. You are more than welcome to take a look at them to see what I did was what you want. Check it out when you have the time and tell me what you think;.
