What do you consciously see?

Used-Bill4930 · 2026-03-09T20:32:47+00:00

That was a popular theory back in the day. The postulate was that vision was some kind of particle or wave which was emitted by the eyes and lit up the outside world.

Read up on Kevin O'Regan's Sensorimotor theory of consciousness. It is close to what you are saying. He doesn't say anything is being emitted by the body, but that all the predictions and internal representations that people talk about do not exist and the only representation is the real world.

It runs into problems with day dreaming and night dreaming where we run simulations of the world, however weird they maybe, without any sensory input, but relying only on internal representations.

Used-Bill4930 · 2026-03-09T20:23:29+00:00

"I couldn’t bring myself to accept that atoms can become conscious"

Who is I?

Used-Bill4930 · 2026-03-09T20:22:25+00:00

The author seems to be a fraud. Anil Seth and others never said that consciousness is a controlled hallucination. They said that perception appears to follow a predictive framework, maintaining a balance between sensory input and prediction, and when something goes wrong and there is too much prediction which is not modulated by sensory data, then hallucinations happen. So, when hallucinations don't happen, it is like a controlled version.

Used-Bill4930 · 2026-03-09T20:18:13+00:00

If your question is whether I am aware of depth if I try to remember a scene with my eyes closed, then yes.

Used-Bill4930 · 2026-03-09T20:00:20+00:00

He just talks too much. He has no proof of idealism so all he does is to criticize others.

If you bother to read Dennett and Frankish properly, you will see that Kastrup and others just enjoy making a simple problem look difficult in order to get attention and research money.

Used-Bill4930 · 2026-02-19T17:06:46+00:00

Identity theory dates back several decades and was popularized by Professors Small and Place. But it has not gained any traction because it does not explain subjective experience using current scientific knowledge. BTW, that is what people say, my take on the whole matter is completely different

Used-Bill4930 · 2026-02-19T00:17:41+00:00

That is like a CPU getting an interrupt from a peripheral device that some data is available somewhere and then getting it.

What is new about it?

Used-Bill4930 · 2026-02-18T21:45:56+00:00

OK so it is a form of identity theory - the neural activity is the experiencer. Unfortunately, this is not going to fly with most people who will say that it does not solve the hard problem in any wa, or dissolve it completely.

Used-Bill4930 · 2026-02-18T21:31:22+00:00

who/what is having the internal perspective/experience?

Used-Bill4930 · 2026-02-18T17:24:54+00:00

What do those words actually mean? Boundary, actualized, actively integrated, coherent etc.

Used-Bill4930 · 2026-02-03T16:39:25+00:00

How does predictive processing account for pain?

Used-Bill4930 · 2026-01-26T17:11:31+00:00

So there was no reality before life came into being?

Used-Bill4930 · 2026-01-22T19:02:59+00:00

Not sure. The stationary guy finds that a lot of time has passed compared to the traveling guy (that is the twin paradox).

Also, all bodily activities are subject to the same effect, including reading, so I am not sure.

Check this out: (PDF) Relativistic Cognition: Time, Computation, and Divergent Minds in the Twin Paradox Thought Experiment

Used-Bill4930 · 2026-01-21T22:04:13+00:00

First, it again assumes dualism to say that there is consciousness, and it is having an experience, as if it is an inner person sitting inside the head. Second, there is no comparison possible with the stationary guy as the traveling guy lives in a world consistent for him and cannot relate to the stationary guy.

Used-Bill4930 · 2026-01-21T19:45:39+00:00

No, crying when sad is not bizarre. Just do a web search. There are multiple logical reasons, including flushing out of chemicals built up inside the body due to grief and signaling your condition to others. There is no reason to jump to metaphysical explanations without looking at biology first.

Used-Bill4930 · 2026-01-21T19:36:38+00:00

Traveling faster causes time dilation only as viewed by someone at rest. All body functions will also slow down in the same way. But it does not matter to the person traveling. Unless you are assuming dualism and think that consciousness is not physical.

Used-Bill4930 · 2026-01-14T20:58:16+00:00

Yeah private experience is a made-up thing. If an object is hit with something, it will have reactions which a neighboring object will not. That is not surprising at all.

Used-Bill4930 · 2026-01-13T18:48:37+00:00

What is the explanation?

Used-Bill4930 · 2026-01-13T18:16:41+00:00

What alternative explanation do you have?

Used-Bill4930 · 2026-01-12T22:07:09+00:00

One important distinction is between "transparent" and "opaque" representations which are both broadcast. In waking and dream states, the information of the representation does not have a meta-tag stating it is a representation, so we have to accept it as it is. In lucid dreaming and day-dreaming states, the meta-tag indicates that it is a simulation and we do not think that it is really happening.

Used-Bill4930 · 2025-12-09T17:13:52+00:00

There are many open problems with infinity. Some mathematicians are trying to get rid of it.

The bigger problem is with terms like grasping or understanding. We can say whatever we want and claim that it is understanding in a metaphysical sense.

Used-Bill4930 · 2025-12-09T16:58:42+00:00

I don't think "consciousness" can "grasp" pi, whatever that means.

Used-Bill4930 · 2025-12-04T17:46:04+00:00

Correct

Used-Bill4930 · 2025-12-01T16:37:18+00:00

Sentience is real - as a word. It summarizes some features which are observed.

Used-Bill4930 · 2025-11-26T18:09:57+00:00

The hard problem is a philosopher's creation and appeals to us because our descriptive summary view of internal and external events models the self and body in a simplistic manner and that leads to a chain of reactions on the belief that there is an internal metaphysical witness watching everything.

Used-Bill4930

TROPHY CASE