At what quantity does water become a fluid?
One molecule of H2O is not water. It is not fluid. It cannot crystallise at zero degrees Celsius nor can it boil at 100 degrees. It cannot dissolve anything. It holds very little in the way of the properties of water.
But strangely if you add numerous H20 molecules together then you see these properties emerge. How to resolve this?
H2O alone is not water yet it is the only constituent of pure water.
I think this phenomenon is important to note about physical things: it seems the whole is not equal to the sum of the parts only.
It would be more accurate in this case to say the whole is equal to the sum of the parts plus the interaction between these parts - a separate “additive” meta-physical process.
Perhaps in the case of the mind we see that same emergence. One neuron by itself is not a mind just like one molecule of water is not water. But when put together, some interactive process permits all the qualities that amplify the intrinsic properties of the units .
But strangely if you add numerous H20 molecules together then you see these properties emerge. How to resolve this?
H2O alone is not water yet it is the only constituent of pure water.
I think this phenomenon is important to note about physical things: it seems the whole is not equal to the sum of the parts only.
It would be more accurate in this case to say the whole is equal to the sum of the parts plus the interaction between these parts - a separate “additive” meta-physical process.
Perhaps in the case of the mind we see that same emergence. One neuron by itself is not a mind just like one molecule of water is not water. But when put together, some interactive process permits all the qualities that amplify the intrinsic properties of the units .
Comments (10)
I'm sorry, but you are wrong, H2O is precisely the definition of water. A single molecule of water can, in fact, achieve the states of molecular excitation which typically result in freezing, crystallisation, or boiling.
If only one molecule of water is present, then obviously crystallisation can't take place. But that doesn't stop it from being a molecule of water. If it isn't water, what else is it?
[quote=Arthur Conan Doyle]There's nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact[/quote]
"There is nothing as mysterious as a fact clearly described."
— Garry Winogrand
I’m not saying it isn’t chemically water. Of course it is. I’m saying as unit of water it does not have the properties we attribute to a fluid or crystal of ice. The point I was getting at is “why must it be a collective before it demonstrates certain behaviours that we associate with the fluid and its properties? And secondly does this phenomenon apply to other simple units like the cause of a neuron not being a mind. But a collective being so.
I guess that’s up to your interpretation. I think it’s maybe a comparison between to things that seemingly don’t elicit information or behaviours as a single unit that they have as a collective. And why is this the case?
Quoting Benj96
Why the meta?