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Jack Roycroft-Sherry's avatar

What are your thoughts on agential beings like angels, demons, and spirits in classical traditions? Do they relate to our previous discussion? It's interesting that when these traditions conceive of the world of heavenly patterns, they often do so in terms of personal, agential beings. Why not just static Platonic forms or 'dead' patterns? However, I recently talked with JP Marceau of The Symbolic World and he suggested that one could think of 'the angel of E=mc²,' or of any mathematical construct in a similar way. We view an equation like E=mc² as a very set and well-defined law. However, we don't understand all of its implications. So, could a law like E=mc² also be an agent? This is analogous to how, at our level of existence, something strange and seemingly counterproductive, like certain aspects of morality, might be conceptualized as being governed by higher-level agents.

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James Torre's avatar

War as being harmful to group co-ordination is an interesting position to take, given its historical use as a rallying cause at the national and international level.

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