Comments | lumin_esc: (без темы)

lumin_esc

(Untitled)

Aug 15, 2011 15:18

So there's this concept that I've been fixated on for about a year now. I try not to reduce philosophy to science, but natural stories can be as illustrative as any myth or legend, right? You'll have to bear with me a bit if you're a biologist -- I am just barely educated ( Read more... )

Comments 10

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lumin_esc August 16 2011, 17:57:15 UTC

Really, "you" aren't the you you were a moment ago, right? I liked the little dialog in Waking Life that described how your identity, at any moment, is just a story you've pieced together from what you think are your memories. And of course every time you recall a memory, it changes slightly. Creepy. :B

bi_boy August 18 2011, 06:09:36 UTC

I once heard a throwaway stat in exposure to an entry-level I think psych course that something like 1/4 memories a person has are false.

amblinwiseass August 19 2011, 14:37:09 UTC

Honestly, I'd be surprised if it were only a quarter.

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keovi August 15 2011, 23:03:37 UTC

Please share more thoughts like this, it's fascinating and I'd never thought about it like that before! Even as a kid, I'd get BLOWN AWAY by the fact that while "I"/my perception of myself might be "in control", I'm made up of all these TINY LITTLE THINGS that live for a very short time, but somehow keep me running. It's still boggling.

lumin_esc August 16 2011, 17:54:20 UTC

Thanks; I'm trying! Mostly I'm just out of the habit of posting to or reading LJ at all. x_o

Science is always crazy, but lately I'm waking up to how wacky and meanderingly evolution has progressed. The theory that our cells are actually built from more than one life form (evolved separately) blew my mind -- maybe I wasn't paying attention in junior high if it was presented to me? Wtf ever; I'm still allowed to get off on it now.

acy August 16 2011, 18:06:54 UTC

Do you know how much of your genetic code was inserted into your DNA by endogenous retroviruses? You should check out: http://longnow.org/seminars/02011/jun/07/viral-time/

amblinwiseass August 19 2011, 15:09:53 UTC

almost as large as the number of human cells

Larger in fact -- you are outnumbered. (But not outmassed! Bacteria are very much smaller, in general, than human cells.)

rule number 1 is always to keep everyone else out

The existence of mitochondria and plastids suggests otherwise, don't you think? Were the most fundamental biologial imperative as you argue it to be, then the endosymbioses which gave rise to all complex multicellular life on Earth would likely never have occurred, and the most highly structured organism on the planet would probably be a lichen.

and while we're on the subject amblinwiseass August 19 2011, 15:23:06 UTC

I'd say the most fundamental biological imperative, if there can be said to be one, would have to be 'minimize entropy' -- if all the vast and diverse panoply of life on this planet could possibly be said to have a single thing in common outside of where it evolved, then I'd say that single common feature must certainly be structure, and I'd further say that entropy is identical with death, decay, and ruination. (You're familiar with the equation of information and anentropia, yes? Consider cancer in those terms, and see if you think I'm wrong.)