Frank Mayhar <frank at exit.com> writes: > David Dyer-Bennet wrote: > > At the moment I can't get any closer to this than "I don't know". I > > have a fair amount of idea of what it feels like from the inside, and > > some anecdotal reports from other people on that topic. And I know a > > bit about what's been learned about the low-level mechanics of the > > brain. But I have *absolutely no clue* how those hook up in the > > middle. > > I'm beginning to suspect that the subjective perception (the "I" that > thinks and the self-awareness) is an illusion. So if that's the case, > they _don't_ "hook up in the middle." You go from the complexity of > the low-level stuff straight to the high-level stuff in one leap, since > in a way the high-level stuff doesn't really exist. (I know that I'm > overstating a bit but I think the point is valid.) That raises the always-troublesome issue of "an illusion *of what*", though. I like the phrase "Consciousness is an emergent phenomemon of the brain", but I'm not sure how much it really explains. But then we're up against the nastiest area of metaphysics, so I guess it's to be expected that things are a bit peculiar. -- David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b at dd-b.net / New TMDA anti-spam in test John Dyer-Bennet 1915-2002 Memorial Site http://john.dyer-bennet.net Book log: http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/Ouroboros/booknotes/ New Dragaera mailing lists, see http://dragaera.info