Re: Observer Moment or Observer Space?

2008-04-02 Thread Russell Standish

On Tue, Apr 01, 2008 at 09:34:29PM -0500, Hal Ruhl wrote:
 
 Hi Russell:
 
 You wrote:
 
 What does it mean to have a material aspect?
 
 
 I see my model as requiring a time like aspect induced by the evolution
 triggering endurance meaningful question.
 
 Selecting out space like aspects would inject net information into the
 Everything - the out selection - so given a time dimension space dimensions
 seem unavoidable.

I'm not sure this follows. A single bit process can exist in zero
dimensional space. However, perhaps single bit processes are too uninteresting.

 
 I have constructed models in which matter is itself just a distortion of [a
 discrete point] space time.
 
 If applicable, these types of matter models would make matter a direct
 consequence of the space and time aspects.  

I suspect that something like this will explain matter eventually, so
good luck with your theorizing. I'm personally intrigued by the Helon
model, but don't really have the smarts to do anything with it.

 
 I take this as indicating that you hold that something [information
 processing?] is going on during an observer moment.  This is as in your book
 as I understand it so far.  I do not see this in my model.  In my model an
 observer moment is a fixed state terminated by a transition to the next
 state.  The selection of a next state is in part determined by the
 incompleteness of the current state which is solely a product of its history
 and the random sub set of the incompleteness that gets resolved by the state
 to state transition.  Consciousness is inherent in the process of the
 transition wherein both states momentarily overlap [for lack of a better
 term], as some incompleteness is resolved [information added] and fresh
 incompleteness is generated by that resolution. 
 

Why don't you see this transition as a form of information processing?
The transistions may be rather accidental in your model, but this is
from a bird view perspective. From the frog perspective, the
transitions must appear to be information processing.


-- 


A/Prof Russell Standish  Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)
Mathematics  
UNSW SYDNEY 2052 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Australiahttp://www.hpcoders.com.au


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RE: Observer Moment or Observer Space?

2008-04-02 Thread Hal Ruhl

Hi Russell:

[My current mail client does not work the way I like and I can not spend the
time to insert s in the right places so this indicator of who said what
will be missing from my posts for awhile, I will use an xxx separator for
my responses.]  


 
 Selecting out space like aspects would inject net information into the
 Everything - the out selection - so given a time dimension space
dimensions
 seem unavoidable.

I'm not sure this follows. A single bit process can exist in zero
dimensional space. However, perhaps single bit processes are too
uninteresting.

xx

I have found the no selection tool rather useful, so I will stick with it
in this case for the time being.

xxx


 
 I have constructed models in which matter is itself just a distortion of
[a
 discrete point] space time.
 
 If applicable, these types of matter models would make matter a direct
 consequence of the space and time aspects.  

I suspect that something like this will explain matter eventually, so
good luck with your theorizing. I'm personally intrigued by the Helon
model, but don't really have the smarts to do anything with it.

xxx

I will look at this and dust off my old stuff, which I have not looked at
for several years.

x


Why don't you see this transition as a form of information processing?
The transistions may be rather accidental in your model, but this is
from a bird view perspective. From the frog perspective, the
transitions must appear to be information processing.



I will accept that for now.

Importantly it seem to move the two points of view closer together 

Hal Ruhl


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Re: Observer Moment or Observer Space?

2008-04-01 Thread Russell Standish

On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 09:29:40PM -0500, Hal Ruhl wrote:
 
 As I understand your Theory of Nothing book the Everything in it has or at
 least contains time like components [time postulate].  I agree but
 apparently for a different reason.
 In your reply to Jason you allowed that the OM machine [our machines
 also apparently differ] could have an extent in space as well.  This seems
 to require the Everything to have space like aspects.  Actually if it
 contains one dimension in a real sense to avoid selection it should contain
 more.  If it has time and space aspects what prevents it from having
 material aspects? Until now I had felt that the Everything did not require
 space or material aspects but I am reconsidering the possibility. 

The time postulate is a requirement of observerhood. I'm not sure this
means that time-like components are in the Everything, but I can
accept this is possible.

I don't know of any similar requirement for space, but I have tossed
around some ideas to do with embedding dimension of networks. It is
still very much an open question.

What does it mean to have a material aspect?

 
 As I understand your response to Jason you allow two different observers [a
 fly and a human] in the same universe to have different OM durations and I
 do not see this. Perhaps I do not understand your response. Did you intend
 to have them in the same universe? 
 
 Yours
 
 Hal Ruhl
 

Sharing the same universe is I suppose equivalent to being able to
communicate. Rather than a conscious fly, it might be easier to
imagine an AI that works much faster than human intelligence, thus
having smaller OM durations, but still able to communicate with humans
(eg via a teletype interface). It would be interesting to see how
different the perspective is.

-- 


A/Prof Russell Standish  Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)
Mathematics  
UNSW SYDNEY 2052 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Australiahttp://www.hpcoders.com.au


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RE: Observer Moment or Observer Space?

2008-04-01 Thread Hal Ruhl

Hi Russell:

You wrote:

The time postulate is a requirement of observerhood. I'm not sure this
means that time-like components are in the Everything, but I can
accept this is possible.

I don't know of any similar requirement for space, but I have tossed
around some ideas to do with embedding dimension of networks. It is
still very much an open question.

What does it mean to have a material aspect?


I see my model as requiring a time like aspect induced by the evolution
triggering endurance meaningful question.

Selecting out space like aspects would inject net information into the
Everything - the out selection - so given a time dimension space dimensions
seem unavoidable.

I have constructed models in which matter is itself just a distortion of [a
discrete point] space time.

If applicable, these types of matter models would make matter a direct
consequence of the space and time aspects.  

Sharing the same universe is I suppose equivalent to being able to
communicate. Rather than a conscious fly, it might be easier to
imagine an AI that works much faster than human intelligence, thus
having smaller OM durations, 

I take this as indicating that you hold that something [information
processing?] is going on during an observer moment.  This is as in your book
as I understand it so far.  I do not see this in my model.  In my model an
observer moment is a fixed state terminated by a transition to the next
state.  The selection of a next state is in part determined by the
incompleteness of the current state which is solely a product of its history
and the random sub set of the incompleteness that gets resolved by the state
to state transition.  Consciousness is inherent in the process of the
transition wherein both states momentarily overlap [for lack of a better
term], as some incompleteness is resolved [information added] and fresh
incompleteness is generated by that resolution. 

Currently I see each such transition as being a state change for the entire
universe supporting it.  

but still able to communicate with humans
(eg via a teletype interface). It would be interesting to see how
different the perspective is.

Indeed.

Hal Ruhl

-- 


A/Prof Russell Standish  Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)
Mathematics  
UNSW SYDNEY 2052 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Australiahttp://www.hpcoders.com.au




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Re: Observer Moment or Observer Space?

2008-03-31 Thread Russell Standish

On Sun, Mar 30, 2008 at 09:35:47PM -0500, Hal Ruhl wrote:
 
 Hi Russell:
 
 In response to Jason you wrote:
 
 An OM is a state of a machine. In as far as the machine is embedded
 in space, the the OM is spread across space. Successive OMs involve
 state change,
 
 In my model a universe is an incomplete entity [a Something or a Nothing]
 within the Everything [the ALL(s) + the Nothing(s)[nesting provides the
 multiplicity]] that is driven towards completeness by un-resolvable
 meaningful [to that entities current state] questions that require
 resolution. I suppose this constitutes a machine.
 
 I wonder if these conclusions - [machines/dynamics] - indeed impose the
 property of having space like aspects on the Everything in addition to time
 like aspects? Further - would that in turn give it a wider physical
 matrix?
 

Its not obvious to me. What is your reasoning?

 
 Of course this finite amount of time will be
 observer dependent,
 
 How do you mean that. I do not see that state dwell duration differs within
 a given universe.  I also do not see a fixed value even for a particular
 universe.

Sounds like you're having a bob each way here...


-- 


A/Prof Russell Standish  Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)
Mathematics  
UNSW SYDNEY 2052 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Australiahttp://www.hpcoders.com.au


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RE: Observer Moment or Observer Space?

2008-03-31 Thread Hal Ruhl

Hi Russell:


On Sun, Mar 30, 2008 at 09:35:47PM -0500, Hal Ruhl wrote:
 
 Hi Russell:
 
 In response to Jason you wrote:
 
An OM is a state of a machine. In as far as the machine is embedded
in space, the the OM is spread across space. Successive OMs involve
state change,
 
In my model a universe is an incomplete entity [a Something or a Nothing]
within the Everything [the ALL(s) + the Nothing(s)[nesting provides the
multiplicity]] that is driven towards completeness by un-resolvable
meaningful [to that entities current state] questions that require
resolution. I suppose this constitutes a machine.
 
I wonder if these conclusions - [machines/dynamics] - indeed impose the
property of having space like aspects on the Everything in addition to
time
like aspects? Further - would that in turn give it a wider physical
matrix?
 

Its not obvious to me. What is your reasoning?

As I understand your Theory of Nothing book the Everything in it has or at
least contains time like components [time postulate].  I agree but
apparently for a different reason.
In your reply to Jason you allowed that the OM machine [our machines
also apparently differ] could have an extent in space as well.  This seems
to require the Everything to have space like aspects.  Actually if it
contains one dimension in a real sense to avoid selection it should contain
more.  If it has time and space aspects what prevents it from having
material aspects? Until now I had felt that the Everything did not require
space or material aspects but I am reconsidering the possibility. 

 
Of course this finite amount of time will be
observer dependent,
 
How do you mean that. I do not see that state dwell duration differs
within
a given universe.  I also do not see a fixed value even for a particular
universe.

Sounds like you're having a bob each way here...

As I understand your response to Jason you allow two different observers [a
fly and a human] in the same universe to have different OM durations and I
do not see this. Perhaps I do not understand your response. Did you intend
to have them in the same universe? 

Yours

Hal Ruhl


-- 


A/Prof Russell Standish  Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)
Mathematics  
UNSW SYDNEY 2052 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Australiahttp://www.hpcoders.com.au




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RE: Observer Moment or Observer Space?

2008-03-30 Thread Hal Ruhl

Hi Russell:

In response to Jason you wrote:

An OM is a state of a machine. In as far as the machine is embedded
in space, the the OM is spread across space. Successive OMs involve
state change,

In my model a universe is an incomplete entity [a Something or a Nothing]
within the Everything [the ALL(s) + the Nothing(s)[nesting provides the
multiplicity]] that is driven towards completeness by un-resolvable
meaningful [to that entities current state] questions that require
resolution. I suppose this constitutes a machine.

I wonder if these conclusions - [machines/dynamics] - indeed impose the
property of having space like aspects on the Everything in addition to time
like aspects? Further - would that in turn give it a wider physical
matrix?


ie must differ by at least a bit. Therefore, OMs must
also be extended in time by some finite amount, rather than be of
infinitesimal direction. 

I agree.

Of course this finite amount of time will be
observer dependent,

How do you mean that. I do not see that state dwell duration differs within
a given universe.  I also do not see a fixed value even for a particular
universe.

Hal Ruhl





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Re: Observer Moment or Observer Space?

2008-03-28 Thread Jason Resch

On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 9:03 PM, Russell Standish [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


  An OM is a state of a machine. In as far as the machine is embedded
  in space, the the OM is spread across space. Successive OMs involve
  state change, ie must differ by at least a bit. Therefore, OMs must
  also be extended in time by some finite amount, rather than be of
  infinitesimal direction. Of course this finite amount of time will be
  observer dependent, so it may well be that a fly's OM is of shorter
  duration than a human's, if a fly is capable of OMs at all (have you
  read my ant consciousness paper yet?).


Yes, I've read it, and I think I have a more formal way of describing
my objection to it.  If there were a device that could randomly pick a
conscious observer moment from among all conscious observers on earth,
and allow you to experience that perspective for a moment, I would
have the opinion this machine is a valid tool for drawing conclusions
on the likelihood of certain creatures being conscious, even if you
could only use the tool once.

My formal objection, however, is that making the same judgment based
on one's current perspective ignore conditional probability.  It
ignores a blindingly obvious premise that we already are a human.
Anthropic reasoning in your paper asks What is the probability that I
should be a human?  I think a truer formulation is really What is
the probability that I should be a human, given I am Russel
Standish?.  In the example I gave where some device could teleport
your awareness into a random creature, there is no preexisting
condition, but when we draw the conclusion starting from already being
a human, the question is meaningless.  This is just how I now see
things, if you have a reason why the initial premise (of starting from
a human perspective) can be ignored I am very interested in hearing it
as it could change my perspective on the subject.

Thanks,

Jason

  One interesting aspect of all of this is what is the neurophysiological
  trick used by the human brain to pull a distributed (in both space and
  time) process into a single coherent here and now experienced by
  consciousness. This was once used to argue for substance dualism, but
  more recent people (eg Dennett) think that we're close to solving the
  neurological mechanism involved.


I look forward to the day it is understood.

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Re: Observer Moment or Observer Space?

2008-03-28 Thread Russell Standish

On Fri, Mar 28, 2008 at 01:28:42AM -0500, Jason Resch wrote:
 
 Yes, I've read it, and I think I have a more formal way of describing
 my objection to it.  If there were a device that could randomly pick a
 conscious observer moment from among all conscious observers on earth,
 and allow you to experience that perspective for a moment, I would
 have the opinion this machine is a valid tool for drawing conclusions
 on the likelihood of certain creatures being conscious, even if you
 could only use the tool once.
 
 My formal objection, however, is that making the same judgment based
 on one's current perspective ignore conditional probability.  It
 ignores a blindingly obvious premise that we already are a human.
 Anthropic reasoning in your paper asks What is the probability that I
 should be a human?  I think a truer formulation is really What is
 the probability that I should be a human, given I am Russel
 Standish?.  In the example I gave where some device could teleport
 your awareness into a random creature, there is no preexisting
 condition, but when we draw the conclusion starting from already being
 a human, the question is meaningless.  This is just how I now see
 things, if you have a reason why the initial premise (of starting from
 a human perspective) can be ignored I am very interested in hearing it
 as it could change my perspective on the subject.
 
 Thanks,
 
 Jason

I've heard this objection before, indeed I had a debate about it with
someone (I can't quite remember who it was - perhaps its was
you). Sadly, I really don't understand it, as I have never premised
anything on being Russell Standish, nor even on just being a
human. The only thing it is premised on is being a conscious being.

Given this objection has come up before, perhaps there have been some
papers discussing it. It would have important ramifications for all
anthropic arguments, not just the ant one. If there are no papers on
the topic, then there's a publishing opportunity for you :)

Cheers

-- 


A/Prof Russell Standish  Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)
Mathematics  
UNSW SYDNEY 2052 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Australiahttp://www.hpcoders.com.au


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Re: Observer Moment or Observer Space?

2008-03-28 Thread Jason

I appreciate the quick reply and your patience in answering my
questions.  Perhaps it would help if I explained the thought process
that led me to where I am.  When reading your ants are not conscious
paper two questions came to mind that I could not resolve:

1. If anthropic reasoning is valid for determining whether or not
other species are conscious, then every rare species should conclude
they are the only ones capable of consciousness. (sould they not?)
2. What if the problem were stated differently, instead of starting
with the class of humans what if it had been animals with brains,
this would lead to an entirely different conclusion.  Instead of
concluding only humans (and a few human-like) animals are conscious,
we would have concluded only animals with brains (and brain-like nerve
complexes) are conscious.  We could have compared the extreme rarity
of animals with brains vs. protozoa or bacteria.

I hope that I have bot burdened you with all these e-mails, this one
will likely be my last on the topic of Ants are not conscious unless
you or others have further questions about my view.

Best Regards,

Jason Resch

On Mar 28, 2:17 am, Russell Standish [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 On Fri, Mar 28, 2008 at 01:28:42AM -0500, Jason Resch wrote:

  Yes, I've read it, and I think I have a more formal way of describing
  my objection to it.  If there were a device that could randomly pick a
  conscious observer moment from among all conscious observers on earth,
  and allow you to experience that perspective for a moment, I would
  have the opinion this machine is a valid tool for drawing conclusions
  on the likelihood of certain creatures being conscious, even if you
  could only use the tool once.

  My formal objection, however, is that making the same judgment based
  on one's current perspective ignore conditional probability.  It
  ignores a blindingly obvious premise that we already are a human.
  Anthropic reasoning in your paper asks What is the probability that I
  should be a human?  I think a truer formulation is really What is
  the probability that I should be a human, given I am Russel
  Standish?.  In the example I gave where some device could teleport
  your awareness into a random creature, there is no preexisting
  condition, but when we draw the conclusion starting from already being
  a human, the question is meaningless.  This is just how I now see
  things, if you have a reason why the initial premise (of starting from
  a human perspective) can be ignored I am very interested in hearing it
  as it could change my perspective on the subject.

  Thanks,

  Jason

 I've heard this objection before, indeed I had a debate about it with
 someone (I can't quite remember who it was - perhaps its was
 you). Sadly, I really don't understand it, as I have never premised
 anything on being Russell Standish, nor even on just being a
 human. The only thing it is premised on is being a conscious being.

 Given this objection has come up before, perhaps there have been some
 papers discussing it. It would have important ramifications for all
 anthropic arguments, not just the ant one. If there are no papers on
 the topic, then there's a publishing opportunity for you :)

 Cheers

 --

 
 A/Prof Russell Standish  Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)
 Mathematics
 UNSW SYDNEY 2052 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Australiahttp://www.hpcoders.com.au
 
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Re: Observer Moment or Observer Space?

2008-03-28 Thread Russell Standish

On Fri, Mar 28, 2008 at 12:53:23AM -0700, Jason wrote:
 
 I appreciate the quick reply and your patience in answering my
 questions.  Perhaps it would help if I explained the thought process
 that led me to where I am.  When reading your ants are not conscious
 paper two questions came to mind that I could not resolve:
 
 1. If anthropic reasoning is valid for determining whether or not
 other species are conscious, then every rare species should conclude
 they are the only ones capable of consciousness. (sould they not?)

No - only that the more common ones are unlikely to be conscious. One
also has to take into account total numbers throughout the species' lifetime.

 2. What if the problem were stated differently, instead of starting
 with the class of humans what if it had been animals with
 brains,

My argument was based on mass classes, rather than species
classification. There is apriori a reasonable relationship between
intelligence and body mass, as well as well-known distributions.

About the most we can conclude from considering species classifications is
that most animal species are not conscious, but it doesn't say which
ones are. Since the animal world is dominated by insects or nematodes,
this doesn't really tell us very much at all. The mass classification
gives a better nuance.


 this would lead to an entirely different conclusion.  Instead of
 concluding only humans (and a few human-like) animals are conscious,
 we would have concluded only animals with brains (and brain-like nerve
 complexes) are conscious.  We could have compared the extreme rarity
 of animals with brains vs. protozoa or bacteria.

Yes - I can see this might work. But what about organisms with
toes. Since there are vastly more organisms without toes, than with,
should we conclude that toeless organisms are not conscious? In fact
the only correct conclusion is that there are more consious toed
organisms than ones without toes - it is just possible that there is a
rare species of octopus who is a toeless conscious organism for
instance.

Another scenario is that there are as many toeless conscious organisms
as toed ones. This would make being toed an uncorrelated parameter
(viz the country of birth argument I put in the paper.

 
 I hope that I have bot burdened you with all these e-mails, this one
 will likely be my last on the topic of Ants are not conscious unless
 you or others have further questions about my view.
 
 Best Regards,
 
 Jason Resch
 
 On Mar 28, 2:17 am, Russell Standish [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
  On Fri, Mar 28, 2008 at 01:28:42AM -0500, Jason Resch wrote:
 
   Yes, I've read it, and I think I have a more formal way of describing
   my objection to it.  If there were a device that could randomly pick a
   conscious observer moment from among all conscious observers on earth,
   and allow you to experience that perspective for a moment, I would
   have the opinion this machine is a valid tool for drawing conclusions
   on the likelihood of certain creatures being conscious, even if you
   could only use the tool once.
 
   My formal objection, however, is that making the same judgment based
   on one's current perspective ignore conditional probability.  It
   ignores a blindingly obvious premise that we already are a human.
   Anthropic reasoning in your paper asks What is the probability that I
   should be a human?  I think a truer formulation is really What is
   the probability that I should be a human, given I am Russel
   Standish?.  In the example I gave where some device could teleport
   your awareness into a random creature, there is no preexisting
   condition, but when we draw the conclusion starting from already being
   a human, the question is meaningless.  This is just how I now see
   things, if you have a reason why the initial premise (of starting from
   a human perspective) can be ignored I am very interested in hearing it
   as it could change my perspective on the subject.
 
   Thanks,
 
   Jason
 
  I've heard this objection before, indeed I had a debate about it with
  someone (I can't quite remember who it was - perhaps its was
  you). Sadly, I really don't understand it, as I have never premised
  anything on being Russell Standish, nor even on just being a
  human. The only thing it is premised on is being a conscious being.
 
  Given this objection has come up before, perhaps there have been some
  papers discussing it. It would have important ramifications for all
  anthropic arguments, not just the ant one. If there are no papers on
  the topic, then there's a publishing opportunity for you :)
 
  Cheers
 
  --
 
  
  A/Prof Russell Standish  Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)
  Mathematics
  UNSW SYDNEY 2052 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Australiahttp://www.hpcoders.com.au
  

Re: Observer Moment or Observer Space?

2008-03-27 Thread Russell Standish

On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 02:16:06PM -0700, Jason wrote:
 
 A common theme on the everything list is the idea of an Observer
 moment, which is a snapshot of an observer's mind in a point of time,
 or the smallest amount of time a single conscious moment can be
 experienced in.  However I think this overlooks the notion that
 information can be embedded across dimensions of both time and space.
 There are cases when information exists in space only, such as on a
 phonograph or CD, but there are also cases when information exists
 temporally, when the record is played the information is copied from a
 3 dimensional space to the dimension of time.  Also consider data
 transmitted over the Internet, its information pattern exists in its
 entirety within a 4-dimensional block view of the universe.  Einstein
 showed how the distinction between the dimension of time and the
 dimensions of space are human imposed.
 
 So if information patterns/structures can span distances of time and
 space, perhaps the concept of an Observer Moment isn't the way it
 should be thought of.  Perhaps we should think of it as an Observer's
 Information Space.  The fact that the human brain is sees individual
 pictures flashed at 10-15 frames per second as motion, and the fact
 that we hear individual vibrations as sound if above 10-15 Hz may be
 ancillary evidence that the human brain's information space
 encompasses the past 0.1 seconds of sensory input in generating a
 model of the environment.
 
 If we consider a computational view for consciousness, the state of
 the computation which might be represented as a single Planck Time in
 this universe likely doesn't contain all the information necessary to
 create an observer moment, rather it is processing of information over
 dimensions of space and time that build a minimal information pattern
 necessary for a conscious experience.  This reasoning implies that
 OM's can be different lengths of times for different observers, and no
 OM can be instantaneous.  Simpler brained organisms such as flies
 might have an OM that spans much less time than a human brian's OM.
 
 Jason

An OM is a state of a machine. In as far as the machine is embedded
in space, the the OM is spread across space. Successive OMs involve
state change, ie must differ by at least a bit. Therefore, OMs must
also be extended in time by some finite amount, rather than be of
infinitesimal direction. Of course this finite amount of time will be
observer dependent, so it may well be that a fly's OM is of shorter
duration than a human's, if a fly is capable of OMs at all (have you
read my ant consciousness paper yet?).

One interesting aspect of all of this is what is the neurophysiological
trick used by the human brain to pull a distributed (in both space and
time) process into a single coherent here and now experienced by
consciousness. This was once used to argue for substance dualism, but
more recent people (eg Dennett) think that we're close to solving the
neurological mechanism involved.

Cheers

-- 


A/Prof Russell Standish  Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)
Mathematics  
UNSW SYDNEY 2052 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Australiahttp://www.hpcoders.com.au


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