On Wed, 2009-04-29 at 10:28 -0500, Jason Resch wrote:
> It
> would seem the way the brain is organized it doesn't accept perception
> of pure randomness (at least not for long, I have not yet tried the
> experiment myself). If it can't find patterns from the senses it
> looks like it gives up and invents patterns of its own.
It is perhaps the other way around. The portion(s) of the brain
responsible for qualia perception appear to operate as a complex,
dynamical system with a variety of chaotic attractors, and sensory
information only serves to "nudge" this system from one set of attractor
cycles to another. In the absence of sensory input, these then operate
in open loop mode, and the person may experience all variety of
interesting qualia uncorrelated with the "real" world.
The overall mechanism of dissociative anaesthetic agents such as
Ketamine or nitrous oxide is poorly understood, but one notable property
they have is that in sub-clinical dosages they suppress sensory input
while retaining consciousness. This results in similar, "open loop"
qualia.
Johnathan Corgan
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Received on Wed Apr 29 2009 - 09:19:30 PDT