Just a quick point, the way theistic philosophers have historically addressed the problem of free will is that it is inherently good. Furthermore however, evil exists in the world toward a greater, if impossible to forsee, good. This basically shuts down any argument against the
Problem of Evil, because it will always be imposible for humans to prove otherwise. Religious debate is at a standstill because of this.
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Originally Posted by KenWittlief
you are mixing together the physical implementation (the CD) with the SW itself (1s and 0s)
how fast you can write or read SW onto a CD or other storage media has nothing to do with the SW being written, the limitation is the physical media
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That's not what I'm saying. I'm pointing out that in order to have any information, software must take a man-made form, must be represented tangibly. In execution, software is nothing more than a conceptual tool. In this capacity, it is not subject to the laws of physics. When you put it on a CD to store it (or in RAM, or on a hard disk), you physically alter the CD. The (debatable) fact that the CD does not change mass does not change the fact that software on a CD is a physical manifestation. Software per se does not "exist" without some physical manifestation. It is impossible to prove otherwise.
Let's use another example. You are saying that a concept can exist without a physical representation. How then, do you explain the colour green? Can you conceive of or define green without it ultimately coming down to a range of light wavelengths? I propose that you cannot (lack of knowledge about wavelengths is no excuse).
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Originally Posted by KenWittlief
the CD or floppy disk or MP3 player memory does not change in weight (mass) when you erase it, or load it up with SW.
Force = mass times acceleration. If I put 1000 blank CDs in my car and drive around, then write very complex code onto those CDs, my car will not require any change in force to drive around, because those CDs still have the same mass.
Something with zero mass is not governed by our laws of physics - because it is not a 'physical' object.
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This is flat out incorrect and is partly why your logic goes off track. The laws of physics do not only apply to objects.