The Hard problem of consciousness:
Oct 19, 2021
The hard problem is the problem of why and how are those processes accompanied by experience.
We have been looking at the Co-Dependent Function, and Cross Interaction of the Conscious and the Sub-Conscious Systems.
Because of The Bandwidth of Data Required to Operate in the Real World, in Real time,
The Brain, is Both Our Primary Data Interface, and Secondary Command and Control Centre.
Those two functions are both Separate and Combined.
They are separated because of the amount of Primary Processing Required, would Swamp the Command and Control Centre if it had to ‘think’ about it ‘All at Once’.
They are combined because the data and the Result of the primary processing, are Required, to make Correct, Valid, Decisions In Real Time.
So we have Evolved a Massively Parallel, Hierarchical, Interrupt System. (all those who couldn’t decide quick enough didn’t survive…)
The Sub-Conscious, Primary Processing, Interrupts, the Conscious, Thinking Command and Control System, with its results.
(thoughts, ideas, Body Status etc…)
So, Why do we have a Sub-Conscious ?
It is Simply Adapted (or optimised) for Bandwidth and Speed but has to trade Simplicity, Simple Functions and Accuracy for that speed.
Why Do we have a Conscious ?
It is adapted (or optimised) for Accuracy and Complexity, but has to trade Speed for that Accuracy and Complexity.
Due to its simplicity, the sub-conscious is prone to silly errors and mistakes.
The Conscious Has the Ability to Override and Correct for those mistakes.
It also Programs and Re-Programs the Sub-Conscious.
(Reasoning, learning, training, rules, processes, procedures, overriding reflexes, standard reactions, etc.)
Learning or Training is :
The conscious mind training the unconscious mind, to relieve the conscious mind of having to ‘think of it’ all the time.
The conscious trains the habits of the unconscious.
So, The Conscious has the ability of Top Down Authority over the Sub-Conscious.
(it Has to have…The Sub-Conscious would not be able to operate properly without it.)
The Sub Conscious is TOO DUMB to be In Charge, AND SURVIVE….
And, Neither One Would Work on its own.
We Need Both to Survive…
One way to observe the above is by meditating…
Most Try to meditate but can’t do it without thinking about the fact that they are meditating…
(which is due to recursion…)
The Trick, is to become the Observer.
Merely Sit there and observe the brain.
Merely Observe the thoughts as they bubble up to the Conscious and then Just continue to sit there and observe.
What you find is that the Brain ‘does nothing on its own.’
Yes, you will get ‘Interruptions’ informing you that you are Bored, Tired, Hungry, Want to get up, Want to do something else etc.
But you can Still sit there and Observe.
If you have done the meditation exercise, you will have realised, that just because ‘you’ have had the interruption,
It Does Not mean that ‘you‘ have to do Anything With it and are Totally Free To do Anything Else…
(which leads on to Freewill…)
So, Why is Science trying to find the Seat of Consciousness ?
They are looking for something that Doesn’t Exist.
It doesn’t exist because it is not in Any One place.
It’s in Every place.
It is the Network talking to itself.
It is Recursion.
Without Recursion (or feedback), You don’t ‘know’ what you know. Or Know ‘that’ you know
Recursion is a Very powerful tool.
I can Replace God with a single rule + recursion or feedback.
The rule is: We must replicate.
The feedback comes from the environment.
Just Re-Invented Evolution…
Recursion (or feedback) gives Rise to Self Definition, Self Organisation, and Emergence.
Consciousness is an Emergent property.
It is worthy of Investigation.
E.g.
I presume you can hear your own voice inside your own head.
That is just your speech area recursively talking to your hearing area.
Meta-ness, is jumping out of a system and seeing it from the outside
= becoming the Observer.
Meta thinking Is only achievable by Recursion.
(The brain Thinking about its own thinking.)
For the Freewill deniers contend that all causes are ultimately physical:
The Physical universe only caused you to exist.
Nothing more.
It does Not cause what You become.
That’s down to you, Not the universe.
You are your own cause from there on.
That, is a break in causality…
Simply because we Can decide Otherwise…
Simply because we Can think for ourselves.
(‘Caused’ it to ‘Yourself’…. = Self Defining…)
Causality:
All you have to do to understand it, is look at reframing.
When you reframe something, the Decision can invert:
from Yes to No, OR from No to Yes,
from Do to Don’t Do, Don’t Do to Do,
From Act to Don’t Act
From Act in this way to Act in that way.
And That, is achieved by the Process. (Recursion)
You can also change the Process.
It is Something You have control over. You can change how you think. (if you want to…)
So, to say that you have no control because you don’t have any freewill Is just an excuse.
You had control over it: All of the time. (every fraction of a second or so…)
You were free to go down either leg of the decision tree.
There was nothing Forcing you OR Preventing you.
You were ‘already free’.
The only question is:
HOW DID YOU Use Your Freedom ?
Freewill Defines itself and Controls itself.
(funnily, It’s the Definition of freewill… and a recursive, or self-definition.)
Freewill is an Emergent Property of Recursion.
The problem of, and solution to Freewill is very Simple:
We are ‘Self Defining’
We Define Ourselves.
We are free to do that in any way at all.
We do it Recursively.
If you don’t like something — change it.
If you find out something new — change it.
If you find a ‘better’ way — change it.
The problem: is that we are Free to do it in Any way at all.
The Solution: is that we are Free to do it in Any way at all.
We are Already Free.
It’s why it’s Freewill…
Without Feedback, Any System is Doomed to Failure.
Self Control is Achieved by Recursion or Feedback to Redefine when going out of bounds or out of control.
Trouble is: ‘You’ defined the bounds…
But Luckily, we have Freewill, and can Change those at ‘will’.
Freewill:
The definition, Explanation and Mechanics Of….
=========================
Freewill exists Because of Recursion.
Freewill is the Ability of the Control to Control the Control.
Freewill is Because of the Interconnectivity of the Brain and the Neural Network.
====================================
It’s recursive…
It’s also Easy to Define…
You Have Control over the Control….(For ‘the control’ read Brain)
Simply Because it is Recursive…
If you choose to do so…
which in itself, is recursive And a Control over the Control…
You can make it do What Ever you choose, When Ever you choose, If you choose to…
You act, ‘Because’ a condition has been met.
You set the condition.
You were free to set it.
You were free to change it.
You were free to Not Set one. (default)
If You had NO Control over the Control….
You would not be Free of the Control…
Ergo No freewill…
The case for freewill rests.
Prove otherwise.
Prove that you have No Control over yourself…
(E.g. … a Robot is not Free of its Control,
until we get to one that Learns and Auto updates its control…
of its own freewill, in other words when ‘it’ (or ‘Itself’) decides to…)
Existence is Self Defining.
As are We.
Ergo Autonomous and Free…
And, if you need that in English….
(and I hope I don’t lose you in the loop at this point…)
If the Control can Change and Control the Control,
it ‘Means’ that the Control was Not the Control in the First Place,
and if it is Not the Control then it is (Already) Free….
(The opposite of control is Free….)
Because something Else is the control……
So, if ‘You’ can Change And Control the Control, then ‘You’ are the Control….not the Control….
So the ghost in the machine, is the echo of the machine….or is the machine, Echoing the Ghost………
It’s recursive….
And, if you don’t see how Control of the Control is Freedom,
Think about this:
If the Control, can Change and Control the Control Continuously….
Is that not the definition of Freedom to Do Anything At All ?
So is it controlled ? or Free to Control Itself in Any Way at all ?
It Is The Definition Of Freewill….
Freewill means that you can Generate choices you didn’t have in the first place…
Freewill is Free thinking.
We are currently, the only things that can take meaningful action.
Q. How do you get out of a self referential loop ?
A. You can’t.
Advice:
You just use the self referential loop to change and ‘escape’ the first one…
You now have a ‘Better’ Self referential loop….to do something with…
Start:
Do
Function: Understand Something
Function: Change Something
Loop
End:
‘Life’ is in the loop…
Change is freedom.
And you were free to Change at Any time.
And, for the Freewill deniers:
For the same decision:
You will decide things one way because of the parameters you have selected to make that decision.
Someone else will decide things the other way because of the parameters they have selected to make that decision.
You were the one to select and set your parameters.
They were the one to select and set theirs.
You were free to select and set your parameters.
They were free to select and set theirs.
You are both free to decide ‘why’ you set those particular parameters.
Again with the very same apparatus…
You can both decide differently for the same thing.
Again Only possible with freewill.
If you could set the parameters of the other, They would NOT have Freewill simply because it was Yours.
(Or if the parameters were ‘dictated’…by convention, force, coercion etc… for it to be free, they Have to set it for Themselves…)
Neither of you, can set or execute the parameters of the other,
Simply because of freewill. You can Only set your own.
As You do not have the authority or jurisdiction of or over the ‘other’
Because You are Separate Entities with separate brains and separate wills.
Each brain decides for itself.
Its ‘will’ is entirely free to decide for itself…(it’s the definition…of freewill)
And Can Only decide for itself. It is not Physically Possible for Anyone Else to Decide For You.
Now we get to optimisation:
When each brain can ‘see for itself’, the optimised path, they will conclude in the same manner.
But, You can’t force them to.
The second you do they ‘will’ defy you, in order to preserve their own freewill.
So Really, there is no Question about freewill.
It Already Exists.
If you don’t think you have any,
It just ‘means’ you just don’t know that you are already free.
Your Prison or Cave, is one of Perception, not Reality.
The reality is:
You can Decide Anything, for Any or No reason.
There are no Actual rules.
‘You’ Set the rules for yourself.
You are your own prisoner.
But You are Also your own Jailer.
You Hold your own Keys…
Which ‘means’ you are both Free and Responsible…
So using recursion:
If you set that you are responsible First,
That fact alone, will change the way you decide and hence act.
Again Proving that ‘You’ are the one that is ‘Responsible’ for the actions.
And you yourself have just done that because you were free to do so.
You were also free Not to do that.
WHATEVER you choose, and Whichever side of the decision tree you choose, it will make a difference, and change the consequence.
And using recursion Again:
The consequence will be considered and added (or Should be added…) to the equation.
Obviously, if you have chosen or decided that you do not have freewill,
you will have decided that you are not responsible for your own actions,
which will alter the way that you behave towards others. (again Self defining…)
If there is no consequence, then you can do anything you ‘want’.
If you are Not responsible for your own actions, then the consequence Really is Of No Consequence.
The Consequence doesn’t actually matter simply because you could not help yourself. (or so one could say…)
That path leads to chaos and the law of the jungle…
The reality is that freewill means we can do anything we want anyway… hence the Chaos in the world…
Simply because we are free to set anything we choose to.
So the trick, is using Freewill to Optimise and Control Itself, so that it does what’s ‘best’
In Reality: Freewill is the Only thing that Can Control Itself, (if it ‘wants’ to or ‘Decides’ to…)
And the only thing that can make it ‘decide’ or ‘want to’, Is Itself….
It’s self defining…
Or recursive…
The Mathematical solution to the Freewill problem, is Contradiction.
Contradiction is Recursion with a Different Answer….
Which is Categorically Not Deterministic.
Freewill is an emergent property of the Brain (Recursion or Self Control and Self Definition)
Due to Recursion:
The Brain is capable of changing the Function and Structure of the brain.
It is capable of Changing its own Feelings.
It is capable of Changing its own Emotions.
It is capable of Changing its own State.
It is capable of Changing its own Behaviours.
It is capable of Changing its own Ideas.
It is capable of Changing its own Thinking.
Thinking, Is an Act of Will…
I have Freewill because:
Of Recursion or Self Definition or Self Organisation:
Simple Rules + Feedback => Ever increasing Complexity
(Unthinking rules + Feedback => Thinking)
All Complexity Emerges from Simple rules + Feedback
(Chaos Theory)
Simple Rules + Feedback => give rise to =>
Both Order And Chaos.
Both Complex and Simple.
Simultaneously.
Information (Ideas) > Creates Order and Structure.
Feedback (Thinking) Creates Chaos.
(You can Also Create Order out of Chaos.)
Chaos is Inherently Unpredictable
and therefore Un-deterministic.
Because thinking is merely a feedback loop, One Can Change the rules on every iteration,
thereby doing Anything One wants, desires, or even Doesn’t want, Doesn’t desire.
(and, as One Can Change the rules on every iteration, that is the Definition of a Chaotic (or random) System)
(and Therefore, By Definition, Categorically, NON DETERMINISTIC)
We are Already Free. Willing or Otherwise…
It’s Why Humans are Chaotic
Just like the Rest of the Universe
And not Determined by anything Other than Themselves…
They Only have Themselves to blame.
If they don’t like it, they just have to Think,
to Change the Way that they Think…
: Consciousness and the hard problem.
How does a brain, a mere lump of matter — “meat you can eat,” as Douglas Hofstadter puts it —
produce subjective experiences like those I have writing these words and you have reading them?
Whilst reading these words, My vision system was talking to my sub conscious subroutines that recognise straight lines,
curved lines, and combine them into letters, and then combining them into words,
that triggered the neural net definitions which triggered the neural context associations,
which triggered meanings, which triggered memories and bodily sensations,
which triggered bodily preparatory signals, and reported that I was feeling hungry…
Just because of recursion…
I have been doing my research in Isolation, without outside influences,
to try to come to an Independent Unbiased Understanding of the System.
I call it a feedback loop. There is nothing strange about it. It is a physical connectivity.
In computing terms, it is quite normal. (re-entrant code, parameterised functions etc.)
It actually creates a chaotic system. (and fractal)
It is Not Deterministic as it can change itself and contradict itself.
I am a problem solver.
So to aid that endeavour, I have done experiments, like training the visual system by visualisation,
and have a hook into the V1 area, so can actually ‘think’ in pictures.
It is a very fast (almost instant) way of thinking.
When I do it, I can’t see anything from my eyes, but ‘See’ nothing but the ‘picture’ answer to my enquiry.
The priority or weighting, switches to the recall rather than vision. It’s quite a strange feeling.
And doesn’t last long (sub second), returning to vision thereafter.
And because of the same strengthened connection to the visual area, whilst relaxing when I am about to go to sleep,
I can Also ‘See’ the brain (sub conscious…) processing faces
and have estimated the timing to be between 10 to 20 faces per second.
The brain is a very plastic adaptable system, and is capable of absolutely anything.
You just have to think of it to do it.
It is a self defining system. Again Chaotic.
Meaning, is the neural network feeding back on itself (via connections)
of what one idea, ‘means’ in terms of other ideas or other connections.
Meaning is actually Structural.
The other thing with the lump of meat example above is that there are lots of other parallel things going on:
Like the triggering of the associated syllable recognition and how the words sound,
which triggered the speech and hearing areas so that you experience them inside your own head as your read.
And the reason you have the subjective experience ‘that you are seeing’
is because the network has a direct mapping of the eyes (in V1) so the ‘network’ can ‘see’ as the eyes do….
I have trained a link that passes stored images or picture thoughts so that I ‘see them’ inside my own head
and Don’t see the incoming stream from the eyes. I effectively go blind for a fraction of a second…
The priority of V1 went to the recall not to the incoming.
Or we use V1 as we are Imagining things to visualise them.
As a teacher of martial arts in my younger days I used to visualise fight sequences and moves in my head.
As a software Systems Architect I could visualise the layout or structure of systems and relational data structures.
Significance:
It is the fact that when switching from outside (objective) to inside (subjective), the network can still ‘see’.
It Means that it was Always Subjective Anyway.
Lucid Dreaming is a clue — it’s still internal — it is the network that is ‘doing the seeing’
Think of it as a bitmap with rgb values
Or recursion of the mapping to visual processing.
If I were to sum up:
We Are the network.
There is No body mind hard problem.
It is one and the same thing.
Its Recursive…
So We Experience Ourselves…