[ExI] a fun brain in which to live

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of Brent Allsop
...
> spike wrote:

>> Likewise, yours is a brain I would like to try on, just to figure out 
>> what is qualia.  I confess I have never understood that concept, but 
>> do not feel you must attempt to explain it to me...  spike

>...It is turning out to be a relatively simple idea, even simpler than the
idea that the earth goes arround the sun, rather than the other way around,
once you get it.
>...First, you've got to get the idea of   representationalism... 
>...One is still ineffable or blind to cause and effect communication, and
the other is not.
>...Which parts of this much simpler than the idea that the earth goes
around the sun do people struggle with?  Brent


Brent it isn't so much a problem with the concept of qualia, rather it is
just me.  I live in a world of equations.  I love math, tend to see things
in terms of equations and mathematical models.  Numbers are my friends.  I
even visualize social structures in terms of feedback control systems,
insofar as it is possible.  Beyond that, I don't understand social systems,
or for that matter, anything which cannot be described in terms of systems
of simultaneous differential equations.  If I can get it to differential
equations, I can use the tools I know.  Otherwise not, which is why I seldom
participate here in the discussions which require actual understanding
outside that limited domain.

The earth going around the sun is a great example.  With that, I can write
the equations, all from memory.  I can tweak with this mass and see what
happens there, I can move that term, derive this and the other, come up with
a whole mess of cool new insights, using only algebra and calculus.
Mathematical symbols are rigidly defined.  But I am not so skilled with
adjectives, nouns and verbs.  Their definitions to me are approximations.  I
don't know how to take a set of sentences and create a matrix, or use a
Fourier transform on them, or a Butterworth or Kalman filter, or any of the
mind-blowing tools we have for creating insights with mathematized systems.

All is not lost.  In the rocket science biz, we know we cannot master every
aspect of everything in that field.  Life is too short.  So we have a
saying: You don't need to know the answer, you only need to know the cat who
knows the answer.

In the field of qualia, pal, that cat is you.  Qualia is the reason
evolution has given us a Brent Allsop.

So live long, very long.

spike