chiliagon – Uncommon Descent

Michael Egnor: Why abstract thoughts cannot arise from material things

Abstract thought is qualitatively different from concrete thought. To understand this, consider a chiliagon. A chiliagon is a closed regular polygon with 1000 sides. It is very simple to understand abstractly. However, it cannot be imagined concretely

martin_r KF, don't misunderstand me, sure, all species are also living entities. What I meant was, that dragonfly's body is pure... – Of Dragonflies, Spitfires and Elliptical Wings
martin_r chuck, Dawkins has a whole new book out on flight. How timely is that? you mean a biologist has a... – Of Dragonflies, Spitfires and Elliptical Wings
Querius JVL @345, Code as in what computer programmers do is not at all like what is seen in DNA. In... – L&FP, 66: String -- yes, s-t-r-i-n-g...
groovamos The issue is whether it should be legal for adults to undergo medical treatment to change their sex if that’s... – Give Dawkins credit for guts: He...
Querius Origenes @347, For the sake of rational coherence, can we all agree that a watch does not “appear” to be... – L&FP, 66: String -- yes, s-t-r-i-n-g...
chuckdarwin KF/18 Dragonflies are exhibiting classic Beheian devolution. Getting smaller and smaller. Pretty soon they will fit in a thimble. By... – Of Dragonflies, Spitfires and Elliptical Wings
Origenes CR @347 For example, the very same watch could appear to have wildly more or less of the appearance of... – L&FP, 66: String -- yes, s-t-r-i-n-g...
critical rationalist CR, you tried to suggest that a watch is an analogue instrument so bits are irrelevant. I simply pointed out... – L&FP, 66: String -- yes, s-t-r-i-n-g...
bornagain77 How life changes itself: the Read-Write (RW) genome. - 2013 Excerpt: Research dating back to the 1930s has shown that... – L&FP, 66: String -- yes, s-t-r-i-n-g...
JVL Kairosfocus: , typified by algorithmic code in string data structures in the cell. Code as in what computer programmers do... – L&FP, 66: String -- yes, s-t-r-i-n-g...
bornagain77 as to: Harvard’s Richard Lewontin summarized it, organisms ” … appear to have been carefully and artfully designed.” 4 He... – L&FP, 66: String -- yes, s-t-r-i-n-g...
vividbleau Sort of a funny story but instructive. I play Texas Holdem and the worst starting hand is seven deuce off... – Give Dawkins credit for guts: He...
vividbleau “The issue is whether it should be legal for adults to undergo medical treatment to change their sex if that’s... – Give Dawkins credit for guts: He...
Querius Kairosfocus @341, Complex design comes from competent, intelligently directed configuration, here, typified by algorithmic code in string data structures in... – L&FP, 66: String -- yes, s-t-r-i-n-g...
relatd Kf at 23, You speak without a comprehensive background. The German Jumo jet engine was axial as opposed to Whittle's... – Of Dragonflies, Spitfires and Elliptical Wings
relatd Querius, You're still missing the basic idea. Machines can never exist without people to make them. You seem to be... – L&FP, 66: String -- yes, s-t-r-i-n-g...
kairosfocus Related, you speak of 1942 not 1934, date of the elliptical wing. KF PS, it was want of materials that... – Of Dragonflies, Spitfires and Elliptical Wings
kairosfocus AF, after decades of attempting to deny recognition of design, now we see oh the issue is source. Complex design... – L&FP, 66: String -- yes, s-t-r-i-n-g...
Querius Relatd @332, You are completely missing the big picture. Before Computer Aided Design there was pencil and paper – still... – L&FP, 66: String -- yes, s-t-r-i-n-g...
kairosfocus Q, information is readily defined and measured, this is part of telecommunications theory, that is where bits comes from. Design... – L&FP, 66: String -- yes, s-t-r-i-n-g...
JVL Relatd: How did unguided evolution invent body plans? Via a process of inheritable variation and cumulative selection. As I have... – L&FP, 66: String -- yes, s-t-r-i-n-g...