2006-03-02
Spirit
“Daddy. God must send souls back to earth.”
“Sorry darling, what do you mean?”
“Well, if all the souls stay in heaven there will be none left on earth and then there will be no more living people. There will only be plants, but no people. They need a soul.”
Did she invent reincarnation all by herself? Anyway, the thought is quite interesting. As a physicist I’m used to fixed quantities of matter and energy, but what about spirit? Is there a limited amount of spirit and how much spirit is needed for one soul? Is spirit reused after ones death, just like matter?
Spirit is not really a subject for scientists. But we can ask the same question for information.
"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas."
-- George Bernard Shaw
But can we exchange ideas unlimited? Is there an unlimited stock of ideas and information? Can a limited amount of matter contain an unlimited amount of information?
I don’t know the answer. When I find it I'll post it here (and in Nature).
“Sorry darling, what do you mean?”
“Well, if all the souls stay in heaven there will be none left on earth and then there will be no more living people. There will only be plants, but no people. They need a soul.”
Did she invent reincarnation all by herself? Anyway, the thought is quite interesting. As a physicist I’m used to fixed quantities of matter and energy, but what about spirit? Is there a limited amount of spirit and how much spirit is needed for one soul? Is spirit reused after ones death, just like matter?
Spirit is not really a subject for scientists. But we can ask the same question for information.
"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas."
-- George Bernard Shaw
But can we exchange ideas unlimited? Is there an unlimited stock of ideas and information? Can a limited amount of matter contain an unlimited amount of information?
I don’t know the answer. When I find it I'll post it here (and in Nature).
# posted by Sander @ 00:13 
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Right.... Spirit.... IMHO "spirit" IS the subject for scientists! I want to know how things are appreciated, hated and loved! Can't get enough of it :-)
The idea of ideas does let me think of "memes".
http://www.memecentral.com/
Inspiring again Sander!
The idea of ideas does let me think of "memes".
http://www.memecentral.com/
Inspiring again Sander!
# posted by 
: 3/3/06 03:15
: 3/3/06 03:15
speaking of memes, dennett has a new book out on religion, don't know if it's any good (NRC thought it wasn't too good), anyway, Dawkins' memes get a central place in it. This week I was reading Dennett and Hofstadter's book The Mind's I, which is very cool. It is old (80's), it contains several key-papers and also lot's of sci-fi stories, with dennett&hofstadter's reflections appended. I remember in one of them that dennett notes that of course one could acknowledge the fact that the complete british library is in fact coded in the molecular structure of his morning sandwhich, but the problem is that generally one does not have the key to read that code. So the problem is perhaps not so much of how much information can get 'into anything', as, how much information can be 'read out of something by somebody'. This is ultimately limited by the information processing capacities of the reader, not of the stuff that was carrying the code.
BTW shouldn't your blog be renamed to: Sander's daughter's reflexions?
BTW shouldn't your blog be renamed to: Sander's daughter's reflexions?
You mean it's not information, but out-form-ation?
BTW. You got a point. I'm puzzled about who's reflexion it is. Give me a moment. I'll have to think about this.
BTW. You got a point. I'm puzzled about who's reflexion it is. Give me a moment. I'll have to think about this.
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