William Morse  wrote:

> john_SPAM{at}wilkins.id.au (John Wilkins) wrote in
> news:c912oh$2n2u$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org: 
> 
> > All data storage in the real world is analogue. The only difference
> > between analogue and digital is the fidelty of replication. I think
> > that any evolutionary process is going to maximise the fidelity to the
> > point where further improvements would be too costly, no matter
> > whether it is cultural, biological or technological. I completely
> > agree with Tim, and would say that "digital" is, in the real (as
> > opposed to abstract) world, a name for "very-high-fidelity
> > reproduction" over analogue substrates. 
> 
> Umm - whatever happened to your reductionist stance? Unless you are denying
> quantum mechanics, or are arguing for emergent properties, it would seem
> that your only logically consistent argument would  be that  all data
> storage in the real world is digital. 
> 
You'll have to explain this to me. All I can see is that if analogue
systems can simulate digital ones (and I don't quite see what the appeal
to QM has to do with this - data storage occurs on macro-level systems
here, and it is agreed by all that they form analogue states of
distribution rather than digital binary states), any "digital" computer
storage is actually an attempt to make a digital system or data stream
out of what is inherently analgoue.
-- 
John S Wilkins PhD - www.wilkins.id.au
  a little emptier, a little spent
  as always by that quiver in the self,
  subjugated, yes, and obedient.  -- Seamus Heaney
---
þ RIMEGate(tm)/RGXPost V1.14 at BBSWORLD * Info{at}bbsworld.com

---
 * RIMEGate(tm)V10.2áÿ* RelayNet(tm) NNTP Gateway * MoonDog BBS
 * RgateImp.MoonDog.BBS at 5/31/04 5:02:44 PM