Replying to LO28071 --
Jan writes in reply to At:
>Do not fail to notice that there is a point in The purpose of the
>Universe. . (well, two to be precise; i'm referring to the end of The
>Purpose of the Universe.). The Purpose of the Universe is to have an end.
>The Purpose of this end is to have a point. The Purpose of a point is to
>have a purpose. From there it is porpoises all the way down. I like to have
>a dialogue on the Purpose of the Universe, because it gives a purpose to
>the universe. People are not only self-
>referential animals, they can have a dialogue about it too!
Call me cynical, but I'm not sure the Universe has a purpose. To be more
precise, I'm not sure "purpose" is a property of the universe. I think
purpose is much more a need for living creatures than it is for the
universe itself.
The way I see it, purpose is about choice: About the recognition that
there are p possibilities and then choosing one of those possibilities as
a course of action. Keeping with this idea, we can purpose implies
intelligent action (p -> a).
While I do believe that there is intelligence in the universe -- because
there is strong evidence that information is embedded in all forms of
excistence, and information is the foundation of intelligence -- I do not
think that the intelligence in the universe is the same as the
intelligence of a living creature (with the exception that living
creatures are embedded in the universe, but my point is that such
intelligence is a very local phenomena rather than a global phenomenon).
The intelligence in the universe is based more or less on probabilities,
and these probabilities are what form the basic physical laws of the
universe.
Now I'm saying this from a philosophical rather than a scientific point of
view. Since I'm not a scientist I can't speak in scientific terms.
Despite the fact that I question the purposefulness of the universe, I *do
not* question the purposefulness of intelligent life (well, OK, I once
questioned it and decided that it was such a fundamental property of
intelligence that I shouldn't question it any longer).
As I alluded to earlier, I think that purpose is essential to intelligence
to the extent that purpose influences the choices an intelligent creature
will make.
At a basic level, the purpose of intelligent creatures is to sustain their
own existence. This applies equally to bacteria as it does to humans. But
beyond that, the nature of purpose changes with the intelligence of the
creature. Humans think of purpose in very abstract terms; while an animal,
say a dog or cat, may never even think in those terms and therefore
purpose must mean something entirely different to the animal than it does
to a human.
Even within the human species, the intelligence of each person influences
their sense of purpose -- and more than likely, the breadth and depth of
that purpose.
Now I'm going to step back for a minute, and state explicitly that I
believe purpose is *essential* to prolonged, intelligent life. If I were a
purposeless person, chances are I'd be dead right now instead of writing
this message. But the fact that I'm not dead, implies I have a sense of
purpose -- but it says very little about what my purpose is.
So when we talk about purpose in the context of an LO, what we're saying
is that purposefulness is a property of an LO and therefore leads an LO to
make those choices, at many levels within the organization, that move it
towards it's purpose.
But I'd take it a step further, and I'd say that the purposefulness of an
LO is a much richer, more important part of an LO than it is in an OO.
Said another way, the purpose of an LO is more purposeful than an OO.
--Benjamin Compton e-mail: thecastingdeck@hotmail.com web: http://www.thecastingdeck.com
Confidence is taking off after moby dick in a rowboat with a harpoon and a jar of tartar sauce. (anon)
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