Quote:

There are elements of style (to borrow a phrase) that are particular to the art itself that may not convey any bit of information. A writer who has mastered the technical aspects of writing so they can write with a strong, clear voice is superior to one who has not. A piece of writing may convey the same information as another, but it is typically much more of a pleasure to read one written by Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain or Jane Austen than one written by Tom Clancy, Jeff Foxworthy or Jessica Trapp.


It takes one to know one, Sir Williams, you yourself write stuff with a clear voice that I admire. I probably could too if I wasn't afraid I'd sugar coat what I was trying to say by being readable. Especially fundamental concepts about physical nature which are not clear but shaggy and are best expressed in a vague and shaggy way...as follows:

What Is Learning?

That's easy. Learning is what life does to help it continue through time.
Well then, what is "life"? Well, life is what inert matter does when a billion billion varied interactions of temperatures and atomic combinations react through a billion billion billion episodes through time.
In other words, mud, given time, can walk and talk like you and me -- especially if we insist on defining life as mud-like-ourselves.
In other words any definition of "life" must require self-replication and adaptation to external conditions, and that condition is the result of inaminate matter continuing towards its own definition -- a self-fulfilling prophecy.

"The hell you say" You might say.

And you would be wrong. The only game in town is "determinism" and that in which we perceive as pleasure is merely a survival function of we, the walking mud.

Note: Only "bad mud" would understand these comments as anti-religious. Indeed these comments should underscore the majesty of God, he who created something out of nothing, and some of that something became us.

Last edited by themilum; 09/15/06 02:01 AM.