Firstly a big thank you to Russell Standish for providing that incredibly succinct 'bit stream' summary of universal-dovetailer ontology. [Though only a vocational mathematician would seriously call it 'very simple' even if it does have less than 1% of Bruno's word count for his essay on the subject.] Having the two approaches to the problem at hand has allowed me to get a bit of purchase on the beasty.
Thanks also to Stathis for that simple and lovely, 'obvious', question from left-field. I am now convinced that, no matter what others might say, each number is in fact a process. Bruno referred to some kind of Platonia, some unspeakably not-anywhere place as the source of numbers and other mathematical objects or relationships. That is all well and good but as far as I can see - still - the numbers and other mathematical objects that people use are words in the strictest sense. They arise in human minds through inter-subjective induction, empathic copying [mirror neurons], interaction with the world, etc. But they are created anew in each brain that learns them, same as all other constructs. Their fantastic power comes about because they reflect - emulate and simulate - emergent properties of the rest of the universe. That this happens so successfully in so many people leads me to infer that the underlying principle organising the human mind, just as that organising the Great IT, the Multiverse, what ever, is harmonic resonance. ************** Meanwhile - SP: 'How do you know that you are the same person from moment to moment in ordinary life? The physical processes in your brain create psychological continuity; that is, you know you are the same person today as yesterday because you have the same sense of personal identity, the same memories, woke up in the same environment, and so on. It is necessary and sufficient for survival that these psychological factors are generated, but it doesn't matter how this is achieved.' MP: Yep! I am a story! I am not like a story, I *am* a story. It is *my* story and I'm sticking to it, except when I find there are aspects of it I don't like. The problem [or a problem] is that this does not take away any of the intrinsic paradox of our experience. As I have said many times our experience is what it is like to be the portrayal of self in the world created within one's brain. The rendition in its details is effectively *about* being a person in his/her world, moment by moment. The experience we argue about, and other, possibly less benighted, persons write poetry and songs about, is simply what it is like to be this rendition. The primary practical paradox for each of us is that unless this distinction is pointed out repeatedly, we mistake the rendition, the story, for the world itself. We are doomed to live ever like this. From the recesses of my dark corner it looks as if Bruno can show us conclusively that this subjective-objective distinction is an inherent feature of any kind of universe that we humans have any real hope of understanding. and as per the first part above, I think that the answer to the binding question in each domain is harmonic resonance. As far as I can see it accounts for why the pure gasses like to form molecular pairs; there have been reports recently that our sense of smell relies on inter and intra molecular vibrations as the fundamental [pun unintended] mechanism for detection and recognition of minuscule amounts of thousands of different airborne molecules; Steven Lehar has been banging his head against the wall for many years trying to point out to people how harmonic resonance can easily explain a huge range of Gestalt type capabilities clearly effected within the brain; correlations of brain wave frequencies have been discovered marking temporally related activities of the hippocampus and cortical regions shown through MR imaging to be involved in the creation or activation of memories. And the list goes on. NB: I hope that my imaginary destination in your speculation of possible post mortem exploits for my erstwhile sceptical soul is not a post-Freudian slip. I know that many of my contributions to this and other lists have lacked the erudite succinctness of those with greater talents; failure of concentration [AKA 'ADD'] has been a characteristic of life for me, but I think that 'awaking' to the innards of a black whole would do more than wonderfully concentrate the mind: concentration itself would become the major problem even for a ghost! =-O Regards Mark Peaty CDES [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.arach.net.au/~mpeaty/ Stathis Papaioannou wrote: > > > On 3/6/07, *Mark Peaty* <[EMAIL PROTECTED] > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote: > > > A human life must be a compilation of all these including the creation > of internal [synaptic change, etc] structure/record which endow the > ability to *be* the story. But when looking at this as a/n > [infinity^infinity] Many Worlds affair, none of the worlds could > 'know' > that they are like or identical to others, surely? So I am > puzzled. What > holds 'my lot' together? We seem always to be confronted by yet > another > infinite regression. > > > How do you know that you are the same person from moment to moment in > ordinary life? The physical processes in your brain create > psychological continuity; that is, you know you are the same person > today as yesterday because you have the same sense of personal > identity, the same memories, woke up in the same environment, and so > on. It is necessary and sufficient for survival that these > psychological factors are generated, but it doesn't matter how this is > achieved. If you suddenly die today and are miraculously recreated > inside the event horizon of a black hole, no-one will ever be able to > find you again but you will be able to find yourself. > > Stathis Papaioannou > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. 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