Post by Hansen Young on Jul 20, 2015 1:18:01 GMT
1. Explain the virtual simulation theory of consciousness.
The book Cerebral Mirage begins with the sentence: “One of the most significant discoveries of modern science is that the world we perceive around us is not as it appears. (Pg. 2)” A following anecdote covers human perception of color, and how objects we perceive aren't actually that color but are instead are the reflection of that particular spectrum of color not being absorbed by the object we attribute that color to. The book then refers to the cerebral mirage (Pg.5), a “spell” that gives a sense of understanding without attainment of true understanding.
In essence we as biological organisms are bound by our biological limitations. As self-aware animals descended from less self-aware ancestral animals, much of our daily activities are still turned towards procreation, obtaining food and lodging, and other banal life-sustaining endeavors. As such our sensory suite is very much devoted to those ends and will remain so for the foreseeable future unless humanity somehow transcends this lower plane and become some sort of immaculate seers. The anecdote of using a smart phone and being constrained by its incumbent operating system is very apt (Pg.6) in my opinion, especially if you use iOS over Android.
The book also speaks of virtual simulations as a product of natural selection better allowing humanity to map out strategies and increase survival rates (Pg.14). Our reality is the virtual simulation resulting from our biological constraints and conscious interpretation of what we can experience, and not the entire whole of actual reality.
2. How does the brain trick us and for what benefit is it for our genetic survival?
For the most part, all species on this planet Earth of ours don't perceive reality in all its magnificent unfettered truth, and most of them are getting along just fine, unless they're being put to extinction by current human activity. We experience things the way we do because that was enough for our predecessors and natural selection doesn't select for things unless they confer fitness advantages that make their recipient more successful. Philosophy is an exquisite luxury reserved for a species relatively free from the worries of predation, starvation, and threats of bodily harm.
The purpose of our bodies and senses is to keep us alive, and to that end they continue to perform marvelously. It's the addition of this pesky concept called self-awareness that causes the more contemplative of us, building of the work of equally contemplative predecessors in the sciences, to question the natures of truth, reality and the universe. In that regard, the forces that shaped our biological selection into the hominids we are now did not well prepare us for perception of reality as unimpeded by the fog of our biological senses. Maybe future fusions of bio-mechanical sentiences will help alleviate some of these issues once ethical considerations are quashed in the name of scientific advancement.
As far as a benefit to genetic survival or our brains tricking us, page 14 of Cerebral Mirage offers the idea that the virtual simulations afforded to humans has allowed us to come up with coping strategies for various scenarios without having to actually undergo those actual scenarios at the risk of deleterious consequences or actual bodily harm, affording us better adaptability and survival as compared to our competitors.
The book Cerebral Mirage begins with the sentence: “One of the most significant discoveries of modern science is that the world we perceive around us is not as it appears. (Pg. 2)” A following anecdote covers human perception of color, and how objects we perceive aren't actually that color but are instead are the reflection of that particular spectrum of color not being absorbed by the object we attribute that color to. The book then refers to the cerebral mirage (Pg.5), a “spell” that gives a sense of understanding without attainment of true understanding.
In essence we as biological organisms are bound by our biological limitations. As self-aware animals descended from less self-aware ancestral animals, much of our daily activities are still turned towards procreation, obtaining food and lodging, and other banal life-sustaining endeavors. As such our sensory suite is very much devoted to those ends and will remain so for the foreseeable future unless humanity somehow transcends this lower plane and become some sort of immaculate seers. The anecdote of using a smart phone and being constrained by its incumbent operating system is very apt (Pg.6) in my opinion, especially if you use iOS over Android.
The book also speaks of virtual simulations as a product of natural selection better allowing humanity to map out strategies and increase survival rates (Pg.14). Our reality is the virtual simulation resulting from our biological constraints and conscious interpretation of what we can experience, and not the entire whole of actual reality.
2. How does the brain trick us and for what benefit is it for our genetic survival?
For the most part, all species on this planet Earth of ours don't perceive reality in all its magnificent unfettered truth, and most of them are getting along just fine, unless they're being put to extinction by current human activity. We experience things the way we do because that was enough for our predecessors and natural selection doesn't select for things unless they confer fitness advantages that make their recipient more successful. Philosophy is an exquisite luxury reserved for a species relatively free from the worries of predation, starvation, and threats of bodily harm.
The purpose of our bodies and senses is to keep us alive, and to that end they continue to perform marvelously. It's the addition of this pesky concept called self-awareness that causes the more contemplative of us, building of the work of equally contemplative predecessors in the sciences, to question the natures of truth, reality and the universe. In that regard, the forces that shaped our biological selection into the hominids we are now did not well prepare us for perception of reality as unimpeded by the fog of our biological senses. Maybe future fusions of bio-mechanical sentiences will help alleviate some of these issues once ethical considerations are quashed in the name of scientific advancement.
As far as a benefit to genetic survival or our brains tricking us, page 14 of Cerebral Mirage offers the idea that the virtual simulations afforded to humans has allowed us to come up with coping strategies for various scenarios without having to actually undergo those actual scenarios at the risk of deleterious consequences or actual bodily harm, affording us better adaptability and survival as compared to our competitors.
