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From: mentifex@scn.org (SCN User)
Subject: Re: Theory of Dreams
Message-ID: <Dy6zx4.IK1@scn.org>
Sender: news@scn.org
Organization: Seattle Community Network
Date: Mon, 23 Sep 1996 15:48:40 GMT
Lines: 78


Mr. Lee Kent Hempfling (lkh@mail.cei.net) remarked:

> mentifex@scn.org (SCN User) enunciated:
>> "Man traeumt gar nicht oder interessant."  -- Friedrich Nietzsche
> Quoting Nietzsche?

"One dreams not at all, or interestingly."   -- Nietzsche in Book
Three of "Die froehliche Wissenschaft," entry (aphorism) no. 232.

> <snip wonderful exercise>

> Dreams are the continuing processing of the brain (unless death gets
> in the way) without the benefit (or hinderance) of the reality of
> external visual and aural input. PERIOD!

Since we do not  dream  continuously  from the instant of falling
asleep  until  the  moment  of awakening,  the dream-state stands
apart from the remainder of the sleep  inasmuch as  *only* during
dreams do episodic  sensory  engrams "come to life" (at the ictus
of associative tags) and re-assemble into a ghostly apparition of
non-reality-based spurious experiences.

>                                          The dream cycles are periods
> whereby the mental processing of non reality based visual and aural
> input

In the Mentifex design as diagrammed once again below,  the brain
is no longer  dealing with  "visual  and  aural  input"  but with
engrams of former input.  Something -- perhaps residual levels of
excitation  from the most recent waking period -- sets a dream in
motion by activating a  few  conceptual  mini-grids  to so high a
level that the flurry or "brainstorm" of activation  escapes from
the semantic memory via associative recall-tags into the episodic
memory channels of sensory input.  As soon as the sensory engrams
begin to move  diachronically downwards and to be re-deposited at
the  moving  front  of consciousness, the consciousness (which is
defined by this very process) now has something to hold on to, so
that the  asleep-but-dreaming subject may remember the content of
the dream either lucidly before waking or consciously upon waking.

>       crests in total comparison and begins to flow back on the
> overall wave of the thought process. 

> The depiction snipped was a very nice mental exercise.

> lkh


  /^^^^^^^^^^^\ CONCEPT-FIBERS GANGED TOGETHER AS /^^^^^^^^^^^\
 /  -infancy-  \ 3 MINI-GRIDS OF SEMANTIC MEMORY /  -infancy-  \
|               | INCLUDING "GRANDMOTHER" CELLS |               |
| episodic      |  * $ H-----H * * H $ H * H $  | episodic      |
| visual        |  * $ H $ * H *-* H $ H * H $  | auditory      |
| memory        |  * $ H $ * H * * H $-------$  | memory        |
| re-activations|  * $---$ * H * * H $ H * H $  | re-activations|
|      /------- |  * $ H $ * H-------------H $  | at            |
|      |        |  * $ H $-----------$ H * H $  | multiple      |
|      +------- |  * $ H $ * H * * H---H * H $  | random        |
|      |        |  *-------* H * * H $ H * H $  | intervals     |
|      |        |  * $ H $ * H *-* H $ H * H $  | such          |
|      +------- |  * $ H---------------H * H $  | as:           |
|   ___|___     |  * $ H $ * H *---------* H $  |    ________   |
|  /dreamed\    |  * $ H $ *---* * H $ H * H $  |   / stored \  |
| / image   \<--|----->H $ * H * * H $ H * H----|->/ H-e-l-e-n\ |
| \ of Helen/   |  * $ H $ * H * * H $ H * H $  |  \ phonemes / |
|  \_______/    |  * $ H $ * H * * H $ H * H $  |   \________/  |
|               |                               |               |
|  -maturity-   | language ________ structures  |  -maturity-   |
|      /--------|-------\ / syntax \            |               |
|      |  recog-|nition | \________/<-----------|------------\  |
|   ___|___     |       |    |flush-vector      |    ______  |  |
|  /image  \    |    ___V____V___  word-fetch   |   /      \ |  |
| / percept \<--|-->/ conceptual \--------------|->/ stored \|  |
| \ engrams /   |   \ mini-grids / for thinking |  \ words  /   |
|  \_______/    |    \__________/  in language  |   \______/    |

http://www.newciv.org/Mentifex/ is the Web archive of this model.
