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C00002 00002 MIND AND MATTER.
C00005 00003 Philosophy, mirabule dictu, has many definitions ! It is
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MIND AND MATTER.
, the solution to the mind-matter problem is
that mind is software running in hardware which is made of matter.
For me, the problem of matter and mind is to give a specific
definition of the two terms and to explain the experiences commonly
associated with the terms.
Now with respect to intellectual entities, (you and me and
potentially the PDP-10 serial #32) the hardware consists of memory,
interpreter and IO-equipment. The mind or software consists of a
goal seeking world simulator. The world simulator program simulates
the reality world and a number of fantasy worlds. The reality world
simulation is kept closely in sync with perceived data and gives the
mind or self those nice displays of its immediate here and now, as
well as that private monologue called the stream of counsciousness,
as well as an emotional now feeling which remains when you close
your eyes and stop your little voice(s). When the simulator stops as
when you faint, or are gassed, drugged, or struck unconscious; the
mind (job execution) does not exist for a while because the goal
seeking world simulator is not running; however the mind can be
continued because the hardware memory persists inert thru time even
without the simulator. When you are asleep the simulator can run
without much sense data, this is called dreaming. When you are dead
the hardware memory and interpreter and mind have been destroyed.
Philosophy, mirabule dictu, has many definitions ! It is
that of which I shall be officially declared a doctor; being not
medicine, law or theology. It is that which is love or pursuit of
wisdom. It is the search for truth through logical reasoning rather
than factual analysis. It is a two thousand year tradition of
nettled literature written by cranky old men. The notion of "my
philosophy" expounded above is that corresponding to crank personal
opinion (weltanschauung) without any supporting scientific evidence.
In this sense, for me the philosophical problem is solved, I have a
working explaination which is to me personally satisfactory and
which suggests a number of experiments and projects.
I challenge you, Yorick Wilks, to state what for you is the
philosophical problem with respect to mind and matter (or if you
prefer) what is the mind and matter problem of "Philosophy".
Now in order to make my opinion of mind and matter the
scientifically accepted solution to the mind and matter problem I
believe that first I have to construct a robot which will indeed
have an internal mind experience like I have. However, making such a
robot is not fully convincing (no matter how well it passes the
Turing test) but is merely an exercise for my next two hacks, which
would be to connect myself to the robot so that I could experience
its mind and finally to look at the minute physical operations of my
own mind. In this I would be me the observer, me the robot, and me
the brain surgeon who is sticking a probe into his own head. This
for me corresponds to your "Crucial Argument" and I surely will then
have the "Necessary Authority" to say whether the physical world
states, as I probe around, correspond to my internal mind states or
to the internal mind states of my robot which is a smaller
intellectual entity than myself. The matter would be scientifically
public in that I would publish what apparatus and procedures you
could follow in order to connect your mind to a small synthetic
intellectual entity (or even a natural intellectual entity such as a
cat or a worm). At that point Yorick can take it or leave it;
although Macays' argument of total self comprehension in real time
is indeed a paradox; I as a super human cyborg robot android could
feel that my "macay total" scientific comprehension of a human mind
is a scientifically valid explaination of my mind to an intellectual
entity larger than myself although necessarily inaccessible to me.
(Well now a PDP-8 is a simple totally explicable mind to a CDC-6600.)