Platt, 3WD, Bo, all
Platt:
> Who or what do you have in mind as possible patterns capable of
> accessing the higher social or intellectual levels other than humans?
Hope you don't mind if I jump in...
My current position is that the best borderline between what's biological and what's social passes through a definition of "culture" (actually Pirsig names the social Giant as "Culture") I found in Cavalli-Sforza's "Genes, Peoples, Languages":
(more or less)
"Culture is the total sum of knowledge we can exchange and store without genetic replication"
In few words, there is a knowledge we can't change as it is embodied in our DNA, and this is biological. If I want to change it, I have to create another alive being. OTOH, all that we learn is cultural and therefore "social".
According to this point, many animals have a dim "culture". Almost all. But IMO only humans have been able to develop such a complex culture that is capable of accessing the intellectual level (that arises, in my scheme, with the awareness of what knowledge is).
Ciao,
Marco
p.s. to BO
Count me too as one "MOQ interested left on the scene"!
I'm also waiting for my copy of Lila's Child new version, and hope we can discuss Pirsig's new statements. Actually I've begun just before this latest political tempest, in my "Detecting the Social" message to "Dan and all MD".... with sadly no answer. :-(
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