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 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=16868