Have a fantastic new paper detailing some aspects that tie in with Penrose “new theory”.

At the “heat-death” of our Universe (the major contributing factor would be accelerated expansion), the 2nd Law is forced to equilibriate over all Universe distances, and a Phase Transition is imminent, a big-crunch/contraction is the “last-instant” of a previous Universe, and thus is also the “first-instant” of the following Universe?

What is meant by a continuum? Does this mean that there is constant change between a blastocyst and a human being? A newborn baby is a human being, right? So when does that happen? Are you saying that the blastocyst gradually grows to become a human being? What exactly is it in the middle of this process? Is it anything at all?

“Some rather ideological people tend to insist that this continuum cannot be. ”

Ideological? I would say that many people have given this issue some serious thought, without appealing to any sort of ideology or religion. Are you being “ideological” when you assert that this continuum does exist?

“A blastocsyst is no more a person than a four year old is an adult.”

But you would agree that a four year old is a human being, right? So is an adult. But these are just labels we give to human beings to describe their level of physical and mental sophistication. An adult is more developed than a baby, no doubt. But both are considered human. Perhaps a blastocyst is to a baby as a baby is to an adult. Why can’t I say that and assert that they are all human. You’ve given me no argument for blastocysts not being human.

“Those are the facts, and no amount of whining or arm chair amateur philosophy on your part will change them.”

Gee thanks. I’m not whining. Nobody’s whining. Both sides of the debate have very clear, thought-out and logical arguments. There’s lots of good thinking going on. It all depends on which are the correct premises, if such exist.

A blastocsyst is no more a person than a four year old is an adult. But there is no clear point-dividing line between the two other than that we create. Those are the facts, and no amount of whining or arm chair amateur philosophy on your part will change them. But if you insist, then I expect you’ll also have to support treating four year olds as adults with all the benefits and responsibilities therein.

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You need to escape characters that are interpreted as HTML (and XML) markup by replacing them with the appropriate “character entities”:

& = &
> = >
< = &lt;

Escaping single and double quotes is also recommended, and in some contexts (HTML element attributes) essential:

" = &quot;
’ = &rsquo;
‘ = &lsquo;

Another useful character is the em-dash:

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Note the use of a numeric character code. This is always an option, and some browsers will honor it but not the corresponding mnemonic.

(I hope I’m not being misled by the Wordpress preview, which shows the above as intended. More info, plus lists of standard character entities may be found here.)

I’m not sure what you mean, Thomas. What do you mean by ‘pleasant’ and ‘unpleasant’? Blastocysts and babies fall on what side? What do you mean by ‘even’ in the last sentence? Thanks.