After that, we get to Harvest Of Stars, 34:
New download Guthrie, connected directly to the sensors, effectors and computers of a spaceship, senses the whole electromagnetic spectrum, not just light, moves through gravity fields the way his human original used to move through wind and waves and vectors himself toward a moving destination the way his original threw a ball or fired a rifle.
Poul Anderson, comparing two sciences, states:
that physics is simple, therefore calculable, but strange, therefore incomprehensible;
that biology is complex, therefore incalculable, but not strange, therefore comprehensible.
"Certain centers in the living brain process data that nerves bring in from the eye and the ear; but it is the human being as a whole that perceives the encompassing world." (p. 321)
Right. We do not perceive data in a visual or auditory center of the brain, then infer the external environment. Instead, we directly perceive the external environment thanks to processes inside our brains. Similarly, new download Guthrie receives inputs that his inner processes present to him as a perceived face and voice. He perceives the face and voice, not the inner processes, although the latter are necessary for his perceptions.
(It is said that) the universe began as a quantum fluctuation (see here);
the counter-intuitive aspects of quantum mechanics might link objectively observable cerebral processes to subjectively apprehended mental processes;
do we directly experience randomness in the emergence of what Zennists call "natural thoughts" as they continually enter consciousness?;
consciousness generates not only mental processes but also the paradox of unconscious mental processes;
brain-mind and unconscious-conscious seem to be two points of transition from unconsciousness to consciousness;
are we as unable to understand such processes as we are to shine a searchlight on itself?
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Assuming the possibility of downloading a human personality into an artificial neural network, it would be very STRANGE to sense the entire electromagnetic spectrum like this. That was what caught my eye the most in this blog piece.
Sean
Strictly speaking, we don't experience the exterior world; we experience a simulation, a simulacrium, that the brain produces using inputs from our senses.
Already, artificial inputs exist -- VR -- that can "fool" the processing centers into experiencing the input as 'real'.
Mr Stirling,
Maybe these are different ways of putting it but I prefer to say that what we see is the external world although, of course, we see it thanks to our internal processes and a being with different internal processes, like a bat, perceives the same external world differently. That world is a continuum which our senses divide up into apparent discrete objects with a sky above and a ground below.
Paul.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
But are there VR "inputs" which can fool me into thinking I am physically hot or cold? Or speaking to somebody or touching something? All while I am awake, not sleeping or dreaming?
Sean
Sean: not yet, not completely, but it's early days. I expect that "perfect illusion" will be possible within the lifetimes of those now alive, though possibly not mine.
The military is already having problems with some VR training techniques being able to fool the mind to the point of inducing quite real PTSD; the individuals really show the effects of traumatic experience that "really" didn't happen.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Wholly convincing VR inputs of this kind within, say, fifty years? I can see that as being possible.
Sean
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