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What function does the word "just" serve in these kinds of statements? Humans are "just" collections of atoms. So is all other ordinary matter, but what does th

What function does the word "just" serve in these kinds of statements? Humans are "just" collections of atoms. So is all other ordinary matter, but what does that mean? Humans are "just" colony of cells. So is all other multi-cellular life, but what is the significance? Everything is "just" excited fields waving or strings vibrating, but again, what does that tell us above some fundamental level?

armchairhacker 1y ago
Unfortunately "just" is filler, I try to be concise but wasn't there. In fact it's worse, by "or" I really mean "and/or"; in a way, we're simultaneously the cells of cultures and religions and etc. The point is that we typically think of humans as "conscious" and "alive", but consciousness isn't physical; whether a human is conscious or a "ghost in the shell" makes no difference to the universe. In theory, a cell or ecosystem could also be "conscious", "sensing" and "thinking", since it also makes no difference. Furthermore, although its sensations and thoughts would be much different than any human's, they aren't completely unimaginable. For example, an ecosystem reacts to changes, experiments, and adapts via evolution (and cells react to things and display some level of sentience). Thus, evolution can be considered a form of thinking: like how we form and execute ideas to survive and prosper, an ecosystem forms and creates species to increase the coverage of life over the planet.
- card_zero 1y ago
  Evolution creates knowledge, but it certainly doesn't cogitate, otherwise it would design things rationally and with purpose. Instead we get eyes that filter light through their own nerve circuitry, and lots of side effects and happy accidents, and millions of kinds of beetle, and no wheels.
  - armchairhacker 1y ago
    What is "purpose"? Evolution is rational: it constantly produces species that survive better. Sure, there are many ugly "hacks" and things it could do better; yet we also produce things with hacks, e.g. enterprise software. Evolution not producing wheels may be analogous to humans not solving very large problems (e.g. computing very large numbers) in our heads; today we solve very large problems with machines, but likewise evolution has "developed" wheels through us building them.

armchairhacker 1y ago

Unfortunately "just" is filler, I try to be concise but wasn't there. In fact it's worse, by "or" I really mean "and/or"; in a way, we're simultaneously the cells of cultures and religions and etc. The point is that we typically think of humans as "conscious" and "alive", but consciousness isn't physical; whether a human is conscious or a "ghost in the shell" makes no difference to the universe. In theory, a cell or ecosystem could also be "conscious", "sensing" and "thinking", since it also makes no difference. Furthermore, although its sensations and thoughts would be much different than any human's, they aren't completely unimaginable. For example, an ecosystem reacts to changes, experiments, and adapts via evolution (and cells react to things and display some level of sentience). Thus, evolution can be considered a form of thinking: like how we form and execute ideas to survive and prosper, an ecosystem forms and creates species to increase the coverage of life over the planet.

card_zero 1y ago
Evolution creates knowledge, but it certainly doesn't cogitate, otherwise it would design things rationally and with purpose. Instead we get eyes that filter light through their own nerve circuitry, and lots of side effects and happy accidents, and millions of kinds of beetle, and no wheels.
- armchairhacker 1y ago
  What is "purpose"? Evolution is rational: it constantly produces species that survive better. Sure, there are many ugly "hacks" and things it could do better; yet we also produce things with hacks, e.g. enterprise software. Evolution not producing wheels may be analogous to humans not solving very large problems (e.g. computing very large numbers) in our heads; today we solve very large problems with machines, but likewise evolution has "developed" wheels through us building them.