ComeFrom

ThoughtStorms Wiki

Where and how do things come from? I think this is a question which relates to many statements/thoughts dotted around in these storms....
For example, did mixing desks give rise to dance music? (NetworksAndMusicalEcology) It's like saying that by mixing silicon one might get a computer... OK, this might sound a bit over the top, emotionally, but the point that technology itself does not change or do anything is, in my opinion all too often being ignored. This ignorance though comes with a price, which is a consequence of misrepresentation and misunderstanding. It gives rise to notions and practices that lead to dead ends such as AI. Sure, there are things which may be done with AI although it is not AI in it's pure sense, but then one might argue that people can have some sort of responsibility to what they represent.
The fact that we know what dna looks like and what it is made of, does not mean we know neither why nor how all these little parts come to work together so well. Indeed we do not know, and that not knowing has a meaning. One might know that 2 people have fallen inlove with one another, one might have a certain idea as to what brought these people together, but why this happens and how to replicate that in an organised manner can not be done. OK, so one might make an environment for falling inlove and hope, by percentages, contribute because the process is not a top to bottom... But that in itself does not mean two people fell inlove because of the environment, only that there was a certain contribution which worked, for unknown reasons in a particular case.

– Aharon

But Aharon, what makes you so sure we can't do these things? For example to understand "how all the little parts come to work together"?

We have theories of, for example, how all the little transistors in a computer can work together to make a computer. That knowledge is a prerequisite of building computers in the first place. "Mixing" silicon (or doping it with other stuff) is exactly how we make transistors. And everything else is just the organization of those transistors.

If we can understand that, why couldn't we, in principle, understand the biochemistry and organization in how dna adds up to a human being? Or do you think there's something ineffable about human nature?