[lbo-talk] Kenneally, some notes and background

[Miles Jackson]

SA wrote:
> I'm not sure either what Miles means by "independent elements." I 
> think that more productive than asking Miles to explain what he means 
> by "independent" would be to ask him to show what he means. Miles, if 
> genes have no "independent" effect on anything, can you think of 
> anything in the real world that *does* have an independent effect on 
> something else (in the sense you mean)?
>
> SA 

Let me provide a homey example.  I put together the ingredients to bake 
a cake.  I can tell you what ingredients are in the cake, but if you put 
all the ingredients on the counter, it's not a cake.  The cake is an 
emergent property of a specific combination of ingredients in a specific 
proportions exposed to specific environmental conditions. 

Now, could the cake have some "independent effect" on something else?  
Sure.  But that effect is the effect of the emergent property, not the 
effect of any of the individual ingredients that went into the cake.

And just so with any human traits or characteristics, including language.

Miles