From: Derek Gatherer (d.gatherer@vir.gla.ac.uk)
Date: Tue 08 Nov 2005 - 11:19:07 GMT
Here's Marais's orginal.
http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/Marais1/whiteantch12.html
In the middle section there is:
"While the termites are carrying on their work of restoration on
either side of the steel plate, dig a furrow enabling you to reach
the queen's cell, disturbing the nest as little as possible. Expose
the queen and destroy her. Immediately the whole community ceases
work on either side of the plate. We can separate the termites from
the queen for months by means of this plate, yet in spite of that
they continue working systematically while she is alive in her cell;
destroy or remove her, however, and their activity is at an end."
So if there is a spooky field, it must emanate from the body of the
queen. Therefore, it cannot be a property of the whole nest, but
merely of the queen's individual body. Therefore it is not a
holistic field at all. QED.
>>The pheromones must be getting though the plate then. (Actually I
>>dispute that the sound hypothesis has been ruled out. Where did
>>you read that?)
>
>I covered this one already! It is really straightforward, based on
>actors following rule sets applied to _local_ stimuli without need
>of intermediate-range signalling of any kind whether chemical or
>vibrational knee-hearing or whatever.
>
>The plate was as you said _inserted_ implying that the mound's
>development was already well underway, setting up a set of basic
>conditions before intervention (point one). The actors continue to
>follow _local_ rules of the form 'if you are confronted with X, do
>Y' (point two). And incidentally, wrt the plate, they would
>essentially ignore it as they have no programmed response to the
>smell/feel of the plate. All you would see is a (predicatable given
>sufficient [reductionist-produced] knowledge) minor distortion at
>the interface of the mound and the plate -- correct?
>
>It all works just fine and such systems are extremely robust against
>even the grossest of perturbations. There _is no issue here_. Next case.
>
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