Virtual Reality: Consciousness Really Explained! (Third Edition) Jerome Iglowitz 1 Copyright July, 2010 Jerome Iglowitz ISBN 978-0-9845285-0-9 Library of Congress Control Number: 2010908362 JERRYSPLACE Publishing Granite Bay, California 2 Dedication For Chen Who has taught me more about courage than I had ever known. Chenin-Blanc Yic-Mun-Fuung Iglowitz (Gentle Phoenix) March 18, 1974 – May 2, 2010 I love you kid. Baba 3 4 Table of Contents A NOTE FOR IMPATIENT OR SKEPTICAL MINDS........................... 13 PREFACE: .................................................................................................... 17 PREAMBLE: ................................................................................................ 21 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION AND NEW PRÉCIS: “IN A NUTSHELL”................................................................................................. 25 A CURRENT NOTE: JANUARY, 2010 ..................................................... 25 EMERGENCE ............................................................................................... 26 A VERY BASIC ARGUMENT –AN ARGUMENT FROM FUNDAMENTALS........ 28 THE “HARD CORE”:.................................................................................... 33 David Hilbert: ...................................................................................... 33 Maturana and Freeman: ...................................................................... 36 Kant ...................................................................................................... 39 END CURRENT NOTE. JANUARY, 2010............................................... 39 OLD PRECIS FOLLOWS:............................................................................... 39 The Brain: A Materialist Perspective:.................................................. 39 The “Mental” Perspective: .................................................................. 44 The Concordance: ................................................................................ 45 “Symbolic Forms”................................................................................ 45 “The Interface” .................................................................................... 47 CONCLUSION:............................................................................................. 47 CHAPTER 2: EXOTIC MATHEMATICS: WHAT IS IT, AND HOW IS IT RELEVANT TO THE MIND-BRAIN PROBLEM?............................ 53 (A DEEPER LOOK AT HILBERT.) .................................................................. 53 MATHEMATICAL STRUCTURALISM AND CATEGORY THEORY: ................... 64 BACK TO THE MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM: .................................................. 84 5 BACK TO THE SOURCES OF CATEGORY THEORY AND STRUCTURALISM:.... 85 SHAPIRO PART ONE.................................................................................... 85 CHAPTER 3: ADVENTURES OF THE MIND: A CRITICAL TURNING POINT AND THE ORIGINS OF MY CONCEPTION ............................ 97 CASSIRER AND LOGIC: ............................................................................... 98 ON CANTOR’S DIAGONAL ARGUMENT –WRITTEN 50 YEARS AGO!........... 111 A REITERATION OF MY LATER REFLECTIONS ON CANTOR’S ARGUMENT... 114 A POWERFUL ARGUMENT FOR THE STRUCTURALIST PERSPECTIVE.......... 118 MY CONCLUSION: .................................................................................... 119 THE CONCEPT OF IMPLICIT DEFINITION ................................................... 124 BUT HOW CAN WE CONCEIVE OF PURELY OPERATIONAL OBJECTS AS CORRELATING WITH THE REAL WORLD? ................................................... 127 THE ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE ..................................................................... 130 BACK TO MAC LANE AGAIN: ................................................................... 130 A FINAL COMMENT BY CASSIRER RELEVANT TO THIS CURRENT PROBLEM132 Mac Lane category theory.................................................................. 135 BACK TO SHAPIRO:................................................................................... 140 THE ROSEN LETTER: (A REFLECTION ON SHAPIRO’S POSITION)............... 142 MODERN PTOLEMEAN PHYSICS................................................................ 145 ANOTHER LOOK AT HILBERT ................................................................... 148 LOGIC AS BIOLOGY: ................................................................................. 153 RAICHLE:.................................................................................................. 155 ADDRESSING SHAPIRO AGAIN: ................................................................. 160 THE REMAINDER OF THIS BOOK CONSTITUTES MY PROPOSED ...................................................................................................................... 161 SPECIFIC SOLUTION TO THE MIND-BRAIN PROBLEM................................ 161 THE INITIAL PART WAS TO ENABLE YOU TO UNDERSTAND IT. ................ 161 CHAPTER 4: MY FIRST HYPOTHESIS IN DETAIL: (BIOLOGY PART ONE) ................................................................................................ 163 6 1. REPRESENTATION: THE PERSPECTIVE FROM BIOLOGY........................... 163 2. “THE SCHEMATIC MODEL”: DEFINITION AND EXAMPLES..................... 165 2.1 The Simplest Case: A Definition by Example ............................... 165 2.1.1 Reversing our perspective: ............................................................... 171 2.2 A Case for Schematism More Specific to Our Special Problem: Narrowing the Focus.......................................................................... 173 (The Engineering Argument) .............................................................. 173 2.3 The “G.U.I.”, the Most Pertinent and Sophisticated Example of a Schematic Model: the Special Case) .................................................. 175 A Graphic Rendering of Edelman’s Epistemology: Figure 12: ............... 178 2.4 Towards a Better Biological Model.............................................. 181 2.4.1 Biology, The Real Thing: Freeman’s Model .................................... 181 Walter J. Freeman...................................................................................... 181 The Peripheral Code:................................................................................. 186 Cortical Mapping is Very Different, However: ......................................... 187 2.4.2 An Explicit Model of the Mind: ....................................................... 194 GOD’S EYE? ............................................................................................ 197 ON P.S.CHURCHLAND: ............................................................................. 198 3. THE FORMAL AND ABSTRACT PROBLEM:................................. 198 3.1 The formal argument .................................................................... 198 3.2 The Specific Case of Biology ........................................................ 201 Turning our Perspective Around ............................................................... 201 3.3 Retrodictive Confirmation ............................................................ 204 A Profound Teleological Consequence ..................................................... 205 3.4 Conclusion, (section 3)................................................................. 205 4. THE CONCORDANCE: BIOLOGY’S PROPER CONCLUSION ...................... 206 5. PLAIN TALK: ........................................................................................ 210 BOUNDS AND LIMITS............................................................................. 215 APPENDIX, (FREEMAN & AUTOMORPHISM).............................................. 217 FIGURE 19: GOD’S EYE? ........................................................................ 221 7 EDELMAN TO FREEMAN TO EDELMAN.......................................... 221 CHAPTER CONCLUSIONS: ................................................................... 224 CHAPTER 5: MY SECOND HYPOTHESIS –A SHORT SKETCH .... 227 AN ASIDE FOR CLARIFICATION: ............................................................... 228 THE CONCEPT OF IMPLICIT DEFINITION...................................... 234 FROM APPENDIX C: CASSIRER AGAIN...................................................... 237 HOW? THE LOGICAL PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS ............................... 238 CASSIRER AND CLASSICAL LOGIC:........................................................... 240 CONCEPT VS. PRESENTATION: .................................................................. 241 CONTRA THE THEORY OF ATTENTION:..................................................... 242 MAJOR CONSEQUENCES:.......................................................................... 244 RE PRESENTATION: .................................................................................. 245 THE CONCEPT OF IMPLICIT DEFINITION: .................................................. 248 IMPLICIT DEFINITION VIS A VIS PRESENTATION:....................................... 253 WHY IS THIS RELEVANT TO MIND?............................................................ 256 CONTRA CASSIRER:.................................................................................. 259 THE CRUX OF THE ISSUE: PRESENTATION ................................................ 262 CHAPTER 6: MATURANA & VARELA & KANT BIOLOGY-PART II .....................................................................................................................