[OT] - does IP exist?

[Manfred_Nowak]

Adam D. Ruppe wrote:

> On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 06:46:44PM +0000, Manfred_Nowak wrote:
>> How can you decide which of two objects is the parent of the
>> other, if sexual reproduction is defined to be "copying", i.e.
>> both objects are holding the same relevant information? 
>> 
>> -manfred   
> 
> Age. The one that was there first is the original, and the
> subsequent ones are the copies.
> 
> You might not be able to tell the age by directly looking at the
> data itself (like with a copy of a file), but you can figure it
> out through other means (possibly the creation date in the file's
> metadata, or maybe by documentation from another source.)

Now we are engaged with the core: what is copying?

If a copied object is not forced to hold the exactly same relevant 
information as the original, then how can you prove for differing 
objects, that one object is indeed a copy of the other?

If sufficient similarity is enough for a copy:
1) how do one measure similarity?
2) Is it tolerable, that after some iterated copy steps the rsult can 
no more considered to be a copy of the original?

If age is an allowed attribute for comparing objects: how can one 
exclude, that none of the objects is the original; i.e. when you 
compare an uncle with his nephew, but the original was some anchestor 
of both?

-manfred
-- 
Maybe some knowledge of some types of disagreeing and their relation 
can turn out to be useful:
http://blog.createdebate.com/2008/04/07/writing-strong-arguments/