[ExI] Wrestling with Embodiment

[natasha at natasha.cc]

   I like Keith's comment "How could you even tell if your body was a  
good simulation of your physical body and in a simulated world??  
Interestingly enough I was just opening Andy Clark's book to the  
chapter "Plastic Brains, Hybrid Minds" and read:

   "Your own body is a phantom, one that your brain has temporarily  
constructed purely for convenience. (Ramachandran & Blakeslee 1999).   
I was expecting to read Clark's ideas but instead he is representing  
Ramachandran's neuroscientific findings in patients who have phantom  
psychological issues.  Some stories made me lol, like the woman who  
kept seeing her brother asleep in her bed, or the person who was  
partially blinded but saw cartoon characters in the blond spots, etc.   
Most of us have experienced some type of phantom reality so we can  
identify with empathy. The re-mapping aspect is what somehow relates  
to  his embodiment issue. Bypassing the simulation argument, the  
necessity of having a body for perception is invaluable to a sense of  
presence (even though Ramachandran says there is no self).  Now for  
the connection/link: it doesn't matter where the information is stored  
as long as perception exists. (Not sure I understand why I am saying  
this, but I have, on occasion, heard color. (Synthenasia?) Who knows.   
(Doesn't matter).)  But that brings me back to my keen interest in  
this area.  Wait ... I just read Ander's post  ?

   Natasha



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