Seeing red

[bennyboy]

This basically illustrates the problem with my theory. I go down to the level of nodes and relationships in a network, but no further. So from my perspective it doesn't matter whether the nodes are neurons, man-made chips, or implemented entirely in software; it's the states and relationships they represent that counts. But that therefore means that I've imposed my own abstract 'informational' layer between mind and matter that feels like it helps bridge the gap but doesn't really... it helps me understand it functionally and seems to correlate but it still doesn't bridge that gap. Because go low enough looking at a neuron... or anything else for that matter... and all you'll find is atoms in flux. So what is a neuron when it's representing a value? It is essentially just the flow of ions into and out of a cell. So looked at at that level the brain's neural network, in situ in the extracellular space is a maelstrom of activity with ions essentially being recycled as they move into and out of cells. Hard to pin anything down when looked at at that level. Likewise, relationships at that level just add synapses to the maelstrom.

So perhaps it is more like your theory where the states to be represented are not the abstract informational states in my intervening layer - which fails to bridge the gap - but the actual states of matter in the universe... and therefore as you say, energy/matter/mind. Something to think about

Yeah, if you remember my PM, that's why I identify as an agnostic ambiguist: it seems to me that at boundary conditions, things that we think are very different are indistinguishable from each other. It happened with energy and matter; and I suspect the same paradox-conflation will eventually be the normal view with regard to the mind-body problem too.