From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!torn.onet.on.ca!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!princeton!phoenix.Princeton.EDU!harnad Tue Jun  9 10:07:31 EDT 1992
Article 6125 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: harnad@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Stevan Harnad)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Transducers: The Retina is Part of the Brain
Summary: QM & "Virtual Worlds" are irrelevant
Keywords: mind/body problem, other-minds problem, dualism, solipsism
Message-ID: <1992Jun6.153132.25456@Princeton.EDU>
Date: 6 Jun 92 15:31:32 GMT
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I'm beginning to suspect, based on the difficulty people seem to have
even in UNDERSTANDING it (let alone accepting it) that my point about
my being a transducer might be a subtler and more profound one than I
had thought. For those who keep replying to me about transducers AND
the brain, may I inform you that the retina IS the brain -- not a
conduit to the brain, not a tack-on peripheral to a computational core,
but literally a part of the brain. (And for those who will rush to
remind me that enucleated people still have minds, let me remind them
that they still have a lot of other senses left as well, that I did not
say I was just the retina, and that even "I am a Transducer" is of
course an oversimplification, just to get the point across that the
transducer transaction, and all the structures and processes underlying
it, may be an essential component of a mind implementation, rather than
a homunculur channel to it.)

Two other points:

(1) For the record, I don't believe QM has anything whatsoever to do
with cognitive modeling. One field's mysteries cannot minister to the
mysteries of another. Two mysteries do not make an insight, just more
mist.

(2) I systematically ignore all the postings about the possibility that
you or I may be figments of some virtual imagination, etc. etc. The
mind/body problem, the other-minds problem, and all the interesting
possibilities that are open to skeptical reflection, including
solipsism, are eminently worth thinking about. But it is my opinion
that the imaginations of today's motherboard-bred generation,
over-accustomed to the fantasy world of video games, cyberspace, and
other virtual wonders, are actually much LESS capable of understanding
the profound problems raised by these forms of skepticism about
reality, even as they convince themselves that they actually understand
it all better! You have to understand the appearance/reality first, before
you can hope to offer any words of wisdom on it.
-- 
Stevan Harnad  Department of Psychology  Princeton University
harnad@clarity.princeton.edu / harnad@pucc.bitnet / srh@flash.bellcore.com 
harnad@learning.siemens.com / harnad@elbereth.rutgers.edu / (609)-921-7771


