X-Message-Number: 16868
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2001 09:46:40 -0700 (PDT)
From: Scott Badger <>
Subject: Re: Does inherent value exist?

Dave Pizer wrote: "What I am struggling to understand
and develop further is an understanding of value or
worth that is indendent of everything else - if there
is such a thing. I am having trouble putting together
the words "inherent" and "value."....."If life is
"merely" information, and if information has inherent
value, then life has inherent value."

OK, let s assume for the moment that information has
inherent value.

As you say, it follows logically that if life is
information, then it has inherent value as well.

But you d have to also concede that non-organic and
non-living organic compounds are information too, and
thus they must have inherent value.  

So if we accept that all things that are information
have inherent value, the next question is ... Do all
things that are information have an equal amount of
inherent value?  

If not, who says so and why?

If so, then everything in our universe has the same
value which renders the notion of value invalid or at
least moot.

Some might claim that more complex forms of
information are inherently more valuable because they
are extropic, but that's because the person values
extropy over entropy.

Put another way, "Would the information that is a tree
in a forest have value if there was no one to process
the information?"

I agree that  ...we would all like to think of our
lives as more than that.  But our existential angst
isn t likely to be assuaged by the universe any time
soon.

Don t misunderstand me though. I personally assign
great value to my life and the lives of others.

Best wishes,

Scott Badger

 Vita Perpetuem 

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