[ExI] Borders (was Section 230 and Antitrust)

[Stuart LaForge]

Quoting Omar Rahman:

>> Countries do publish their IQ measurements and no, they
>> are not all the same, and obviously some countries have lower IQ
>> populations. Instead of ranting, educate yourself.
>>
>> Don't deny science.
>>
>> Rafal
>
> I don?t deny science, but I don?t see a causal connection between  
> drawing lines on a map and the functioning of neurons.
>
> Could you explain the mechanism?
>
> Omar

The causal connection between drawing lines on a map and the  
functioning of neurons is that compartmentalization is crucial for  
emergent complexity. Let me explain via the mouse smoothie gendanken  
experiment. It is a thought experiment of brutal simplicity. Quite  
simply put, because of the relationship between the arrow of time and  
causation, if a mouse gets homogenized by someone or something, the  
act of drinking the resulting smoothie does not cause the mouse pain.  
That is to say the divided, compartmentalized, organized mouse,  
despite being chemically IDENTICAL to the mouse smoothie, has very  
many more degrees of freedom associated with it.

The difference between a mouse and mouse smoothie are cell and  
organelle membranes and the compartmentalization that they afford.

In short, your blood-brain barrier is a example of how boundaries, be  
they cell-membranes or national borders, are causally connected to  
drawing lines on a map. They serve the same organizational roles. It  
is normal and healthy to have E. coli in your bowels in liver cells in  
your liver. But it is disastrous to have either E. coli or your own  
liver cells in your brain.

Boundaries, regulated portals, and the diversity of environments that  
they afford, CAUSE emergent properties to arise. And these properties  
include life itself. Karl Popper was wrong: a society must tolerate  
some degree of intolerance to remain a distinct and functional  
society, independent to the rest, and serving a distinct purpose in  
the global economy. Between blind tolerance and xenophobia, there is a  
happy, healthy, medium.

Stuart LaForge