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ajqtrz
Chef - loquacious Old Dog
In another thread somebody mentioned this question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg." The answer, like so many questions we face, depends on the definition or "chicken egg." If by "chicken egg" you mean an egg that contains a "chicken" and not necessarily an egg laid by a chicken, then it is likely the egg came first.
Having said that, it's also a question of what you mean by "chicken." If, say, you found an egg and in it was something that walked like a chicken, pecked like a chicken and clucked like a chicken (why does the duck always get top billing in this? (pun intended)), you'd call it a chicken. But then you'd be forced to ask if it was the offspring of something you'd call a chicken? In other words, looking at the creature who laid the egg, you have to determine if it, too, "walked like a chicken, pecked like a chicken and clucked like chicken." If it did not then the egg came first.
Now finally, if the creature who laid the egg was a chicken you can't then claim the chicken first unless you show that the creature laying the egg came from some other process. In other words, since chickens, by definition, come from eggs, you have only moved the question back one generation. Keep doing this and, eventually, you will find a creature who does not quite fit your definition of a chicken laying a egg containing a creature which does fit your definition of a chicken. Egg wins as long as your definition of "chicken egg" is an egg containing a chicken.
All of which leads to the question of how something not a chicken laid the original chicken egg. And that's a question way, way beyond the scope of this. So I'll stop here.
Hope this helps anyone get more sleep who, like me, ponders such (interesting?) questions in the dead of night.
Sorry, put this in the wrong thread. Thanks for moving it.
AJ
Having said that, it's also a question of what you mean by "chicken." If, say, you found an egg and in it was something that walked like a chicken, pecked like a chicken and clucked like a chicken (why does the duck always get top billing in this? (pun intended)), you'd call it a chicken. But then you'd be forced to ask if it was the offspring of something you'd call a chicken? In other words, looking at the creature who laid the egg, you have to determine if it, too, "walked like a chicken, pecked like a chicken and clucked like chicken." If it did not then the egg came first.
Now finally, if the creature who laid the egg was a chicken you can't then claim the chicken first unless you show that the creature laying the egg came from some other process. In other words, since chickens, by definition, come from eggs, you have only moved the question back one generation. Keep doing this and, eventually, you will find a creature who does not quite fit your definition of a chicken laying a egg containing a creature which does fit your definition of a chicken. Egg wins as long as your definition of "chicken egg" is an egg containing a chicken.
All of which leads to the question of how something not a chicken laid the original chicken egg. And that's a question way, way beyond the scope of this. So I'll stop here.
Hope this helps anyone get more sleep who, like me, ponders such (interesting?) questions in the dead of night.
Sorry, put this in the wrong thread. Thanks for moving it.
AJ
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