I didn't realize you were asking for an example. Must be the sensor in me to not read too far into questions. hahahahaha
When you cook a potato...
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I didn't realize you were asking for an example. Must be the sensor in me to not read too far into questions. hahahahaha
The potato first might become skinless. Then you denature it's DNA, essential enzymes with high heat as you cook it.
Then it goes into your mouth as salivary amylase begins breaking down the starch into disacharride (2 sugar) units.
You chew and mash it up, and the bolbus travels down the esophagus into the stomach, it gets hit with acid and becomes chyme/neutralized as the Pancreas do their thing secreting maltase and sucrase to break down the two carbon sugars into glucose, which will then either be metabolized for energy/converted into fatty acids or stored in the liver as glycogen. At this point, within the body, the potato's fate is no different than an animal whose carcass has become nutrition for the earth. Anything not broken down goes back into the S.I, then water is taken out in the L.I, and then out the rectum/anus as poop/constipation because you didn't drink enough water as you ate the potato. (lol [MENTION=3998]niffer[/MENTION])
my short answer to this is that when it gets to the point where its unique chemical make up is no longer so, it is no different than other strarch-based foods to be digested.
Then it goes into your mouth as salivary amylase begins breaking down the starch into disacharride (2 sugar) units.
You chew and mash it up, and the bolbus travels down the esophagus into the stomach, it gets hit with acid and becomes chyme/neutralized as the Pancreas do their thing secreting maltase and sucrase to break down the two carbon sugars into glucose, which will then either be metabolized for energy/converted into fatty acids or stored in the liver as glycogen. At this point, within the body, the potato's fate is no different than an animal whose carcass has become nutrition for the earth. Anything not broken down goes back into the S.I, then water is taken out in the L.I, and then out the rectum/anus as poop/constipation because you didn't drink enough water as you ate the potato. (lol [MENTION=3998]niffer[/MENTION])
my short answer to this is that when it gets to the point where its unique chemical make up is no longer so, it is no different than other strarch-based foods to be digested.
And this is a convention of definition, correct?
It's really your perception that stops being able to recognize attributes of potato-ness. It seems that no matter what you do to it, one can convince themselves that it is still 'potato' because this collection of attributes is sufficiently potato like, no matter how far removed they are from the collection of attributes present in a potato that is still in the ground.
So along a continuum of material differences, one ceases to be able to find enough differences to separate the material in question from non-potato material.
It's like if I take one of those yellow smiley faces and cut it up into tiny squares and give you one of the indiscernible middle pieces without telling you what it is. It could have come off a bus, or a wet floor sign, or who knows what - but it didn't. In its continuum of material differences it came from one place.
I suppose. But the medulla oblongata (part of your brain stem) also doesn't make decisions or have free will, but it makes you breathe and have a heart beat, whether you want it to or not.
It also makes you sneeze, cough, throw up, and is what lets you swallow that potato.
I got a horrible/hilarious vision of a potato resembling mr potato man metamorphosing into some cell-potato hybrid in my gut and doing an evil laugh. Good lord. In any case, I suppose when it completely undergoes digestion? Or is this more of a philosophical question... truthfully I think the idea of the physical world being "out there" and separate from us is something of a persistent delusion.
It depends on what you consider a potato to be.
In ultimate reality, there is no potato.
Naming and categorising are tools to process a reality in which all is one with zero empty space. Literally.
There is never 'nothing' save for when there is absolutely nothing and that is pure potential. It is everything - unaware of its own existence.
But back to the potato. It is totally arbitrary because, as we have said, there is no potato and never was.
The potato was always imaginary so call it what you will to suit your purpose.
If your purpose is to stop seeing in illusory groupings, recognise the meta in all things and be mindful of the apparent paradoxes that exist.
An example would be that a rock is solid and inanimate yet all the atoms that comprise it move at tremendous speed and are mostly devoid of actual matter. The potato is skin and flesh and carbohydrates and various other aspects of itself at different times and at the same time.
The answer is not to overcome the paradox, but to make peace with it.
In ultimate reality, there is no potato.
Naming and categorising are tools to process a reality in which all is one with zero empty space. Literally.
There is never 'nothing' save for when there is absolutely nothing and that is pure potential. It is everything - unaware of its own existence.
But back to the potato. It is totally arbitrary because, as we have said, there is no potato and never was.
The potato was always imaginary so call it what you will to suit your purpose.
If your purpose is to stop seeing in illusory groupings, recognise the meta in all things and be mindful of the apparent paradoxes that exist.
An example would be that a rock is solid and inanimate yet all the atoms that comprise it move at tremendous speed and are mostly devoid of actual matter. The potato is skin and flesh and carbohydrates and various other aspects of itself at different times and at the same time.
The answer is not to overcome the paradox, but to make peace with it.
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If one were to peel the fruit of the earth(French), the potato would then be ready for different types of cooking. It could become an ingredient, an appetizer, an or h'orderve, main course, side dish, or the ultimate potato chip. The potato peel could be fed to the crickets to fatten them for fishing. It could even be placed on or in the ground where it can become food for plant life, worms, and/or insects. When we eat the potato, do we fully digest the potato? 
What if part of the potato is stolen by a pet? What if we or the pet do not keep the potato down? Can it become a stain? An embarrassment?
What if part of the potato is stolen by a pet? What if we or the pet do not keep the potato down? Can it become a stain? An embarrassment?
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Kind of looks like a potato actually.
A potato looks a lot better on a plate then it does on my ass :becky:
Shaqie
The Grandmaster in Disguise
I would say when the stomach acid dissolves it. I'm not sure which philosophical bone you're trying to pick here.
Well, vague predicates.
If we take stomach acid, and the potato, put them both in a hermetically sealed vessel for a long time, lets say the vessel is magically impervious to anything at all escaping, in violation of thermodynamics even no heat from the conversion escapes it - what happens to the potato? Does it leave the vessel? Or does it simply become indiscernibly and inextractably intermingled with the acid?
Does it dilute the acid? I mean, if it's a baked potato, it becomes very alkaline in the acid. If its an order of fries from McDonald's though, it may actually become acidic itself.
If it dilutes the acid, how is this so if the potato is actually gone?
Well, there are two ways we can go with this. One is that we can try to clarify what a potato is (i.e. through Aristotle's four causes, for example). Or we can ignore that and focus on what percentage of the potato has to be dissolved, or how dissolved it has to be, before it ceases to be a potato. But that would still bring us back to the definition of a potato.