Is this really a salamander?

So it's a scientific way of explaining the chicken and egg question, there's no chicken or egg, just a slow genealogical continuum?
I love reading your posts when you go off on one Azhael, it makes me wish I hadn't left school at 15 :)
 
Ah, the chicken and egg question changes a lot depending on wether you are talking about an egg or a chicken egg xD In the first scenario, the egg is clearly first, by a long shot, but on the second one both the chicken and the chicken egg are artificial, abstract constructs that we use to identify a specific type of bird and no othe, which "don´t appear" at the same time...but none of it is actually real and there was never a first chicken or a first chicken egg.
Also we are all made of marshmellow and the true taste of the universe is cheesecake xDD

I know it all sounds pretentiously philosophical and counterintuitive but consider the electromagnetic spectrum example. We all know there is no real point in which one colour changes into another, and yet we recognize differences between them (clearly yellow is not the same as green even though we would never agree where exactly yellow starts being green) and label them in order to be able to talk about them. It´s exactly the same thing. There is no point at which the first chicken appeared, but since there are differences between a chicken and everything else, it´s very useful to give it a label and be able to identify it from all the other stuff.

I´m glad you enjoy my ramblings xD For what is worth i am a terrible student and i think i´m trying to compensate by pretending to be a teacher..
 
It's been scientifically proven that the center of the galaxy tastes like raspberry.


Also, it smells like rum.
 
Azhael said:
Not everything, of course.
Click to expand...

I was being facetious but thank you for the extra info. I love words, word meanings, phrases and how these change over time from their original meanings; plus I was one of those kids that followed everything with "but why?". I always find your posts really interesting Azhael.
 
CJ1981 said:
I was being facetious but thank you for the extra info. I love words, word meanings, phrases and how these change over time from their original meanings; plus I was one of those kids that followed everything with "but why?". I always find your posts really interesting Azhael.
Click to expand...

Sorry, my spider senses are dulled by approaching exams xD And thank you, i´m glad i didn´t bore/confuse everybody.

The whole point is exactly what you said, words change meaning and the word "fish" historically has had a meaning that doesn´t match what we now know about animal systematics. It needs to change and adapt to current knowledge. The same goes for many other coloquial concepts like dinosaur, monkey or lizard, all of which are paraphyletic in their common use but shouldn´t be. The only "reason" to retain an incorrect usage of these terms is pure intellectual laziness, which is a bloody poor excuse...
 
So if someone says 'that is an odd looking fish' we can correctly say 'its as much a fish as you are' -yes?
:rofl:
 
Yep, although it´s a good idea, before they have time to fetch their pitchforks and torches, to point out that these particular fish are amphibians too :p
 
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