I think your #2 is why I bring this up. It's interesting that our in-depth understanding of the specific mechanics is fairly recent; before, it was easy to say

I think your #2 is why I bring this up. It's interesting that our in-depth understanding of the specific mechanics is fairly recent; before, it was easy to say that there may be some essential quality of life that made it unique and valuable, simply because it wasn't fully understood. The implications start getting dangerously close to http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html "keep track of opinions that get people in trouble, and start asking, could this be true? Ok, it may be heretical (or whatever modern equivalent), but might it also be true?"