IUBio

mind/soul (blueprint??))

Neil Rickert rickert at cs.niu.edu
Sun Nov 1 17:48:42 EST 1998


"Ray Scanlon" <rscanlon at wsg.net> writes:
>F. Frank LeFever wrote in message <71gkgt$ibc at sjx-ixn6.ix.netcom.com>...
>>In <71cqlh$gol at ux.cs.niu.edu> rickert at cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:

>>Poor metaphore.  How about this one (it has its own flaws, but at least
>>it is different): is the cell like a computer "using"  DNA like a
>>program? or is the program "using" the computer?  (Not QUITE the same
>>question as "is a chicken an egg's way of making another egg?", but
>>reminds me of it...)

>As a professor of computer science, Neil may enjoy your computer story but I
>doubt it. It is too close to the notion that the software is the mind and
>the computer the brain.

Software prescribes the actions of a computer far more precisely than
does DNA prescribe the actions of a cell.

>>(Bytheway: just what IS his point, anyway? In 50 words or less.)

>Possibly politics. He is much taken by Rose (and Lewontin?), Marxists both.
>(Please, Please! I have absolutely nothing against Marxism, however DNA is a
>dirty word to some.)

Ah yes, the old "it must be politics" argument.  It is always easier
to make such accustions, than to actually address the important
issues.

No, I am not a Marxist, and I do not consider DNA a dirty word.  I
happen to like science to be accurate, and not just a set of "Just
So" stories.




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