> I'm afraid you are solipsist.
Ha! Ouch! But it's not quite as simple as that. I don't deny that
there MAY be something that causes consciousness, BUT if there
is...this ultimately doesn't matter. In the final view, the
conclusion is the same...consciousness experience just is what it is.
Further, I definitely don't deny the existence of conscious
experiences other than mine. And there's nothing I've said that
implies this. In fact, I've explicitly said the exact opposite in a
response to David in this very thread.
So, if I'm a solipsist, so are you, and so is basically everyone
EXCEPT those who believe (somehow) in libertarian free will. Which
you and I and David at least have all disavowed as being a nonsensical
concept.
SO, in our last couple of emails we focused on the explanatory
gap...which is really just the wakeup call that something's out of
whack with our view of reality. It's not part of the core argument
I'm making.
My main argument is not even really *against* your theory...my
argument relates to what your theory means if it is true (which it may
be, who knows):
If numbers and their relations exist timeless and uncaused, and our
consciousness is (to use your description) the view from inside a
local summary of the infinities of computational relations between all
the numbers, THEN our conscious experiences are also objectively
timeless, aren't they? And so they can all be viewed as existing
simultaneously, even if they have the subjective feel of being
sequential when experienced "from the inside".
If these conscious experiences all exist necessarily as a consequence
of "the infinities of computational relations between all the numbers"
(TIOCRBAN), then they just exist. There is no reason that TIOCRBAN
have this conscious aspect, it's just the way arithmetical reality is.
So, why do you feel the desire to understand conscious experience?
Well, this desire is a timeless and eternal consequence of TIOCRBAN.
This conscious experience of desire that you feel in this moment has
always existed and will always exist in TIOCRBAN.
Will you succeed in your quest? Trick question! The future already
exists! If you succeed, this success already exists timelessly and
eternally in TIOCRBAN. In fact, maybe a "Bruno experience" of success
AND of failure both exist somewhere within TIOCRBAN.
The entire collection of Bruno's conscious experiences just exist.
And they just are what they are. This feeling of effort that you have
of working towards your goal...it just exists. There is no effort,
only the experience of effort. The feeling of understanding when you
learn something new? There is no understanding OR learning...there is
only the experience of these things, caused by the intrinsic nature of
TIOCRBAN, and like TIOCRBAN existing timelessly and eternally.
If TIOCRBAN causes your conscious experiences, then TIOCRBAN do all of
the work. Your conscious experience is just along for the ride as an
aspect, a facet, of TIOCRBAN.
Further, if TIOCRBAN just exists, uncaused and timeless, then your
experiences also just exist as an aspect of TIOCRBAN and thus also
uncaused and timeless.
If there is no reason behind the nature of TIOCRBAN, then there is no
reason behind the nature of your conscious experiences. No
explanation is possible, only description.
Right? How could it be otherwise?
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Received on Mon Aug 17 2009 - 15:38:56 PDT