X-Message-Number: 21008 Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 06:40:39 -0500 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: CryoNet #20999 - #21006 For James Swayze, more on perfection: I'm hardly against the PURSUIT of perfection so long as we all realize, including the pursuer, that it is an unattainable goal. And even just for our cells it's likely to be unattainable. Haven't you noticed that as we come to understand more and more about how the universe works, we see more and more ways in which things can go wrong? For entropy if for no other reasons, if we start redesigning our cells (that's already started, actually) then we can make any of the 3 kinds of changes I discussed in my last message on "perfection". For Michael Price about identity of particles: It is not that we would somehow return to some former theory but that we would find another better one. Already, as you know, protons aren't thought of as single identities but as composed of quarks. At least some have suggested an improvement on the quark theory which leads to seeing electrons as composed entities also. Or are they special features of a theory using 15 dimensions of which all but 4 collapse tightly? I am pointing out that right now we don't even know that our ideas on the identity of electrons will survive when we work out how to combine relativity with quantum mechanics. Best wishes and long long life for all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=21008