THE EIGHT ISSUE - PARTICULAR ENTITIES,
SURVIVAL, INERTIA
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If all of reality is a solid in which particular entities are foci of
varying densities which are in motion, then the survival of an entity is
an interesting question.
Clearly, entities interact with each other. Some bounce off each other,
some are absorbed by others and vice versa, and most of the time, they just
avoid each other. Some entities are called "inanimate" because
they do not replicate themselves and appear to have no volition over their
direction (e.g., a rock which parts from the cliff always moves downward
and never gets up to go back and retake its position, and it never reproduces
itself by generating more rocks of a comparable size and kind as itself.)
However, inanimate objects do have the property of self aggregation and
inertia; and in that respect, it can be said that all matter has an intrinsic
notion of self and self survival. "Animate" entities are clearly
distinct in that they do reproduce themselves, and they do have some volitional
capability of self-direction, approaching and/or avoiding other entities.
Animate entities strive to maintain self and keep themselves stable.
In the Universe, there are overwhelmingly more inanimate entities than
there are animate; and, although it is still being studied exactly how the
latter emerges from the former, it is generally agreed that animate entities
are a specialized variation on inanimate entities. Thus, in this solid Universe
of moving foci, called entities, a distinction can be made between inanimate
entities and animate ones; but the distinction is one of extension, not
of kind.
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