Comments on: Stretch Your Brain http://duelingbarstools.com/2010/02/stretch-your-brain/ Brains, Heart, and Balls, for Individual Freedom. Sat, 04 Feb 2012 06:58:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Pila http://duelingbarstools.com/2010/02/stretch-your-brain/comment-page-1/#comment-69 Pila Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:48:44 +0000 http://duelingbarstools.com/?p=148#comment-69 Joe needs to read about quantum mechanics. The universe would be totally predictable (to a sufficiently informed and capable computer/entity) were it not for those pesky electrons. They don't exist in the way that we know things to exist, rather, they exist in clouds of probability until they are forced to "choose" a location based on the parameters of observation. It sounds totally fucked up, and it is, but many well-designed studies show it again and again. It is also the element that forces (mathematically) free choice upon us. His second paragraph is a bit of a stretch. I don't know that worms are a superior organism to grasshoppers. The worm does not do all that shit on purpose... if it did, that would be one hell of a hacking job. Evolution did all of the heavy lifting, and the worm just is. A lesser creature (at least biologically) that accomplishes (if you could call it that) a somewhat more sophisticated feat is a type of liver fluke that affects sheep. Ants pick it up from sheep shit and once the infection is ripe, the ant feels an overwhelming desire to go to the top of a blade of grass in a field full of sheep and do a headstand until it dies. At the top of the blade of grass, the ant is very likely to be eaten by a sheep, and hence, pass the fluke on. An even lesser (again, biologically speaking) creature that accomplishes something even more sophisticated is Rabies. Rabies virus causes many different types of mammals to want to bite other mammals, and thus spread itself. That is behavior modification accomplished by a virus. Furthermore, if you were an alien life form observing earth, you would have had to have used extremely sophisticated technology to get here, and would probably not mistakenly classify technology as a type of life. Not bad stuff for a comedian though. Joe needs to read about quantum mechanics. The universe would be totally predictable (to a sufficiently informed and capable computer/entity) were it not for those pesky electrons. They don’t exist in the way that we know things to exist, rather, they exist in clouds of probability until they are forced to “choose” a location based on the parameters of observation.

It sounds totally fucked up, and it is, but many well-designed studies show it again and again. It is also the element that forces (mathematically) free choice upon us.

His second paragraph is a bit of a stretch. I don’t know that worms are a superior organism to grasshoppers. The worm does not do all that shit on purpose… if it did, that would be one hell of a hacking job. Evolution did all of the heavy lifting, and the worm just is.

A lesser creature (at least biologically) that accomplishes (if you could call it that) a somewhat more sophisticated feat is a type of liver fluke that affects sheep. Ants pick it up from sheep shit and once the infection is ripe, the ant feels an overwhelming desire to go to the top of a blade of grass in a field full of sheep and do a headstand until it dies. At the top of the blade of grass, the ant is very likely to be eaten by a sheep, and hence, pass the fluke on.

An even lesser (again, biologically speaking) creature that accomplishes something even more sophisticated is Rabies. Rabies virus causes many different types of mammals to want to bite other mammals, and thus spread itself. That is behavior modification accomplished by a virus.

Furthermore, if you were an alien life form observing earth, you would have had to have used extremely sophisticated technology to get here, and would probably not mistakenly classify technology as a type of life.

Not bad stuff for a comedian though.

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