Since I apparently banned myself from commenting...
on my own blog, let me respond to this:
"Since the idea for merge-sort first materialized in Von Neumann's brain in the 1940's and he wrote an algorithm for it on a piece of paper , the idea has passed from brain to brain via books lectures , bog posts etc, and from brain to various computer and other implementations. At no time has there been any non-material aspect involved in either the way the idea is transmitted , stored expressed or implemented."
With a post:
Because the statement is blatantly, obviously false: Von Neumann's brain had a certain material configuration, mostly carbon and water and other organic stuff. Then perhaps merge sort was written down on cellulose from trees using graphite. Then perhaps it was programmed into an ENIAC or something like that, which used glass vacuum tubes. Later, it ran in magnetic core memory. A while later, on silicon chips.
Each of these material configurations is radically different. They even involve largely different molecules. But in each of them, we recognize the same something, which we call merge sort.
That obviously can't be the atoms involved... Ta-da! That something is not material.
It is the idea of merge sort.
And yes, we always and only recognize the idea (the logos) when it is made flesh. That doesn't change the fact that it is something immaterial that is being made flesh.
"Since the idea for merge-sort first materialized in Von Neumann's brain in the 1940's and he wrote an algorithm for it on a piece of paper , the idea has passed from brain to brain via books lectures , bog posts etc, and from brain to various computer and other implementations. At no time has there been any non-material aspect involved in either the way the idea is transmitted , stored expressed or implemented."
With a post:
Because the statement is blatantly, obviously false: Von Neumann's brain had a certain material configuration, mostly carbon and water and other organic stuff. Then perhaps merge sort was written down on cellulose from trees using graphite. Then perhaps it was programmed into an ENIAC or something like that, which used glass vacuum tubes. Later, it ran in magnetic core memory. A while later, on silicon chips.
Each of these material configurations is radically different. They even involve largely different molecules. But in each of them, we recognize the same something, which we call merge sort.
That obviously can't be the atoms involved... Ta-da! That something is not material.
It is the idea of merge sort.
And yes, we always and only recognize the idea (the logos) when it is made flesh. That doesn't change the fact that it is something immaterial that is being made flesh.
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