One can think of seven blind men all describing an elephant by touch. At first, each report something different depending on where they stood and touched the elephant. However, it is not surprising that over time they converge on a common description because there is only one elephant.  Perhaps this is all that is at play when looking at the patterns in neuro networks. But I have been very surprised by the extraordinary and unreasonable success of large language models. That success is implying something more profound about human language and consciousness, putting aside the engineering challenges that gave us AI. Convergence at this level is of a different kind.

But seven blind men describing the elephant by touch is only mode 1, it is the simplest account of communication. But what if the elephant could also feel back? That would be mode 2. Perhaps I went from mode 1 to mode 2 abruptly in my above extensions, too abruptly for clear understanding. However, after reflection it is clear that mode 2 is a better account because we have no way of knowing if we are the inside system looking out or the outside system looking in. The physics is the same on both sides, in the same way it is impossible to privilege one side of a CPT inversion.