Dualism
Full Title or Meme
There are two primary components of computing, hardware and software.
Context
Traditionally the dualism in philosophy was called the mind versus the body problem. In particular the mind versus the brain has generated great volumes of writing that could easily have been avoided by a slight change in terminology. Although to be fair this is essentially the same as the discussion of nurture versus nature. In all of these imagined dichotomies, the boundary is really quite indistinct the closer it is viewed.
The Problem
Philosophers and the religious have fought for years over dualism. It their a difference between the body and the soul. Are they of one essence or separate type of essence. In the end no one could decide if dualism is real (two essences) or false (one essence). Since no what knew what an essence was, the problem was poorly formed.
The Solution
Nearly all computer engineers can understand this, there is hardware and software and they tend to focus on one or the other. The middle ground is firmware, or software that is baked into the hardware. It is the same with organic life, the hardware is the body, the firmware is the baked in abilities and the software is the learned abilities.
