Van: "Integral World" Aan: Onderwerp: Wilber/Sheldrake Datum: vrijdag 20 december 2013 15:29 INTEGRAL WORLD MAILING LIST =========================== http://www.integralworld.net Newsletter Nr. 480 Amsterdam, December 20th, 2013 REFLECTIONS ON SHELDRAKE, WILBER AND "NEW SCIENCE" - MAUREEN O'HARA Despite the fact that Wilber's discussion is well argued and knowledgeable, I do not agree with some of his conclusions. I don't agree, for example, when he says that scientists have been "unfair" when they criticized Sheldrake's hypothesis because it does not account for the origin of new forms. It doesn't seem to me to be unfair to ask about first causes when Sheldrake is trying to advance a thesis that is an alternative to theories which do attempt to account for both emergence and establishment of new forms. What if the same principles which contribute to the emergence of a new form are also responsible for its stabilization, that is, the tension between biological variation and natural selection, which is the basic hypothesis of most evolutionary biologists? Read more: http://www.integralworld.net/ohara1.html IS THE CURE WORSE THAN THE DISEASE? - A Reply to Sheldrake - ANDREW P. SMITH Frank Visser recently discussed [in "Rupert Sheldrake and the Evo-Devo Revolution"] the discovery of homeobox and other regulator genes, which control the spatial and temporal expression of protein-coding genes, in a manner that developmental biologists like Sean Carroll believe can finally explain the great variation in the shape and form of organisms. He contrasted this view with that of Rupert Sheldrake, known for his original and highly provocative hypothesis of morphogenetic resonance. Sheldrake believes that shape and form can only be understood through the influence of invisible morphogenetic fields, associated with all organisms throughout all of evolutionary history. These fields carry the crucial information needed to specify form, which is transferred to developing organisms in the process of resonance. Read more: http://www.integralworld.net/smith44.html ZOMBIE CONSCIOUSNESS 101 - Alan Turing, the Virtual Simulator Hypothesis, and Recalibrating the Hard Problem - DAVID LANE I thoroughly enjoyed Andrew P. Smith’s recent essay, "Consciousness So Simple, So Complex". I thought it was quite well written and demonstrated a deep engagement with Tononi’s and Koch’s Integrated Information Theory concerning consciousness. I particularly liked Smith’s detailed distinction between unconscious and conscious processes and the necessity of the former for the latter. Writes Smith, “So while our conscious experience is indeed highly integrated, a great deal of that integration takes place unconsciously. Consciousness is often described as ‘where it all comes together’, but it has already come together to a considerable degree before we are conscious.” What most caught my attention, however, was Smith’s invocation of what has been called in various intellectual quarters as the “Zombie” argument, which has parallels (even if not precisely) with Searle’s Chinese Room argument. Read more: http://www.integralworld.net/lane65.html To SUBSCRIBE to this Integral World Newsletter or change your email address, click here: http://www.integralworld.net/pommo/user/subscribe.php To UNSUBSCRIBE, update your account by logging in. For explanation, see: http://www.integralworld.net/nl_faq.html