tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9124539381685751273.post4603160947121002939..comments2023-06-19T04:35:06.263-07:00Comments on Skeptic's Play: No molecule of lovemillerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05990852054891771988noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9124539381685751273.post-29269104791567475362008-08-18T17:55:00.000-07:002008-08-18T17:55:00.000-07:00beautiful post.I've been called a "reductionist" a...beautiful post.<BR/><BR/>I've been called a "reductionist" as an insult on multiple occasions.<BR/><BR/>For me that's like someone calling me out as a "liberal"<BR/><BR/>or "heterosexual"<BR/><BR/>or "dude"<BR/><BR/>And there IS a molecule of love (and hate). It's called EtOH.Irradiatushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02300747428070267240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9124539381685751273.post-24574068152315265952008-08-12T07:01:00.000-07:002008-08-12T07:01:00.000-07:00"There's only a single wave function describing th..."There's only a single wave function describing the universe: the rest are details. (There! I've managed to be both reductionist and holistic at the same time! :P )"<BR/><BR/>Douglas Hofstadter would be so proud!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9124539381685751273.post-41098492240408515692008-08-11T05:12:00.000-07:002008-08-11T05:12:00.000-07:00There's only a single wave function describing the...There's only a single wave function describing the universe: the rest are details. (There! I've managed to be both reductionist <EM>and</EM> holistic at the same time! :P )<BR/><BR/>Seriously, the only times I hear "you're being a reductionist" are when 1) they're making a valid point and try to analyze a much more complex system, or 2) it's silly a substitute for "you want to understand things". And there are far too many people of the latter type.Yoohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08964658430856685576noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9124539381685751273.post-55461112468278116572008-08-10T08:57:00.000-07:002008-08-10T08:57:00.000-07:00How can you talk about molecules? There's no atom ...How can you talk about molecules? There's no atom of water!<BR/><BR/>One example I like to give in these situations is the idea of a computer program. You can break a computer down into its constituent parts, and you're certainly not going to find molecules of Firefox, or MS Word. But it turns out there are <I>patterns</I> you can find in the state of various bits of ram or portions of the hard drive that do in fact correspond to the thing that we call "MS Word".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com