Assessing "Sentiment, Inc."

"Sentiment, Inc."

"'Thought-habits, associational-patterns, the labeling of this as good and that as bad, seem to be matters of established neural paths. If you could successfully alter the polarizations of individual neurones - But it's a pretty remote prospect; we hardly know a thing about the brain today.'" (in 2)

The researchers in the story get lucky and make a discovery ahead of their time. As in Wells' The Time Machine and The First Men In The Moon and in Heinlein's "Life-Line," the discovery is lost at the end of the story but there could always be a sequel.

The villain of the piece wants to change powerful people and thus also society and the world for the better but I agree with our hero that this is not the way to (try to) do it.

The passage quoted above encapsulates in a work of fiction the central question of philosophy: how do states of neurons cause states of consciousness? Could a sufficiently powerful being or technology create a duplicate universe in which neurons did not cause consciousness so that there there would be no "lights on," no one "at home"? If not, why not? Can we even answer this? How do neurons cause consciousness? As of now, no one can answer that.

Next: "Innocent at Large" by Poul Anderson and Karen Anderson. I think that I have read this one and have it in a collection upstairs but I cannot find it on the blog. Maybe it has a different title?

Later: See the results of blog searches for Peter Matheny and "The Innocent Arrival."