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Forum » Knowledge » Philosophy/Science » What Is Natural
What Is Natural
I_Guy Date: Wednesday, 28/Oct/09, 9:31 PM | Message # 1

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Can we consider computers natural?

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EmSeeD Date: Wednesday, 28/Oct/09, 9:54 PM | Message # 2

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TheAmazingAtheist made a good video about this not too long ago.

saying how everything man made is natural if we consider beehive's, beaver dam's etc to be natural then so are all the things humans make. i think i agree with him most of the things we make use products from nature so why not


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Adam Date: Wednesday, 28/Oct/09, 9:59 PM | Message # 3

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Well exactly what do you consider to be natural? If you mean natural as in existing in tranquility along side everyday occurrences. Then in my opinion not entirely. It is widely integrated into the life's of many, but I don't think it plays a natural role in the world. It does however play a role of dependency for communication and a lot of other important situations are made easy through the use of computers.




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eboyd Date: Wednesday, 28/Oct/09, 10:52 PM | Message # 4

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I think first you need to define natural in order to answer this. Let's start with nature. My definition of nature is simply the collective body of everything that empirically exists (and since everything that exists does so empirically, everything that exists is a part of nature) and natural is simply the characteristic of being a part of this body, so therefore if something is natural, it simply means that it exists.

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Menace Date: Thursday, 29/Oct/09, 10:46 AM | Message # 5

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no computers are built environments and everything that humans create are built environments there is a difference between Natural environment/Nature and built environments

read more here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Built_environment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_environment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature


I_Guy Date: Thursday, 29/Oct/09, 2:25 PM | Message # 6

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Quote (eboyd)
so therefore if something is natural, it simply means that it exists.

I agree. I think there should be subdivisions though.


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Menace Date: Thursday, 29/Oct/09, 3:23 PM | Message # 7

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natural means it's organically from nature our computers are not organically created of course on a material scale everything is natural because everything but computers are not organically made

ilikebacon3000 Date: Thursday, 29/Oct/09, 4:49 PM | Message # 8

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Natural is whatever is considered natural to you. Bottom line.
I consider computers not to be natural.
In my opinion, natural is..... Something which comes about organically.
I think the whole argurment about "Oh well since humans evolved from this, and then this, and blah blah (eventually leading to plants, therefore making it seem like plants aren't natural)" is just stupid.
So I have just come to the conclusion that if YOU think it's natural, it is.


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eboyd Date: Thursday, 29/Oct/09, 6:21 PM | Message # 9

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Menace, organic means living, so by that logic, most of the matter in the universe is not natural. In fact, an infinitessimally small amount of matter then would actually be natural. And even if this weren't true, the term "built" isn't an opposing term of the term "natural". The only opposing term there is is "supernatural" and we materialists are sure, to a nearly infinitessimal degree of doubt, that nothing supernatural exists.

And bacon, one of the biggest problems theologians have in their logic is that they cannot come to consensus definitions of things. So promoting defining nature how ever you want to define it will only lead to endless arguments that never come to a conclusion because people can't agree on step 1: the definitions of the terms being used.

If it was the case that we can define it however we want, then I define nature as a giant purple bunny, so by my logic, until I find evidence to the contrary, nature doesn't exist ;)


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Chinita Date: Thursday, 29/Oct/09, 6:43 PM | Message # 10

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this is interesting, i don't consider a computer natural because its material..i agree with what menace said up ther and even ilikebacon

Menace Date: Thursday, 29/Oct/09, 7:22 PM | Message # 11

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Quote (eboyd)
Menace, organic means living, so by that logic, most of the matter in the universe is not natural. In fact, an infinitessimally small amount of matter then would actually be natural. And even if this weren't true, the term "built" isn't an opposing term of the term "natural". The only opposing term there is is "supernatural" and we materialists are sure, to a nearly infinitesimal degree of doubt, that nothing supernatural exists.

matter in the universe has no purpose so by logic life and we have no purpose :D bada bing bada boom I've summoned back our old debate I'm evil LOL nah but as you in that old debate i don't mean the grand scheme here i mean at an environmental level if you know what i mean


I_Guy Date: Thursday, 29/Oct/09, 7:44 PM | Message # 12

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I consider natural to be that which can be found in nature. Their are many chemical compositions and atomic elements that humans have created. Some of the atomic elements can only be created in laboratories and no where in nature. Half of the periodic table has atomic elements made by humans.

So yes, I do consider a stone building natural. The stone was taken from the earth. But when we begin making things with elements that can only be made in laboratories, then at that point we begin to separate from nature.

There are natural objects and natural processes. Everything is natural when you consider the process. Many things are not natural when you consider the object itself and its function.

Humans changed the course when we became agents.


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ilikebacon3000 Date: Thursday, 29/Oct/09, 7:45 PM | Message # 13

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But matter cant be created or destroyed, therefore, ALL things come from the earth.
Its not the final product that is un-natural, it is the process in which it is made that it is un-natural.


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I_Guy Date: Thursday, 29/Oct/09, 7:52 PM | Message # 14

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Quote (ilikebacon3000)
But matter cant be created or destroyed, therefore, ALL things come from the earth

Physicists are now realizing.The Law of Conservation of Matter may be wrong.

Quote (ilikebacon3000)
Its not the final product that is un-natural, it is the process in which it is made that it is un-natural.

No the process is natural, just as the process of bees building a bee hive is natural. However the bee hive is less natural than the bees. Just as a skyscraper is less natural than a human. But the process of building a skyscraper is no different then bees building a hive. Make sense?

Even if the skyscraper was made out of synthetic material, still undergoes a natural process of construction (lifeforms building a social residence). But beings the skyscraper is constructed from synthetic material, it is itself not natural as a product.


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eboyd Date: Thursday, 29/Oct/09, 8:01 PM | Message # 15

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Quote (I_Guy)
I consider natural to be that which can be found in nature. Their are many chemical compositions and atomic elements that humans have created. Some of the atomic elements can only be created in laboratories and no where in nature. Half of the periodic table has atomic elements made by humans.
So yes, I do consider a stone building natural. The stone was taken from the earth. But when we begin making things with elements that can only be made in laboratories, then at that point we begin to separate from nature.
Humans changed the course when we became agents.

i disagree and here's why. your comment presumes that atoms are the elementary particles in nature and that, as you know, is just flat incorrect. what about electrons, protons, and neutrons? and then we can go further. what about quarks? bosons? photons? etc. when humans "create" new elements they are simply doing what they did to create a computer only at a much smaller level, so it would be contradictory to call a computer or a stone wall natural yet call a man made element unnatural/supernatural/whatever. i think what defines entities that are natural is if we can or will someday be able to epirically test it. if it isn't testable it is supernatural and is therefore, to our knowledge, imaginary. so by this logic we can say that anything that is not natural is imaginary. that is why in math natural numbers are those that are not imaginary. imaginary numbers are those that, when applied to the real world, are impossible. an even root of any negative number is imaginary and is therefore not applicable to nature. this same logic applies to the very definitions of the words "nature" and "imaginary".

Quote (Menace)
matter in the universe has no purpose so by logic life and we have no purpose bada bing bada boom I've summoned back our old debate I'm evil LOL nah but as you in that old debate i don't mean the grand scheme here i mean at an environmental level if you know what i mean

i agree that we have no (objective) purpose, but what does that have to do with this argument? words are symbols that we use to describe concepts and objects, so in that sense you could call nature anything you want, and for that reason me calling it a giant, purple bunny is just as valid as your definition, and it is true that over time consensus definitions change, but the scientific definition of nature, by consensus, is the collective body of that which exists, so anything that we can observe or provide evidence for it's existence, whether it is massive or non-massive, organic or inorganic, evolved or intelligently created, is natural.


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