From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!uunet!munnari.oz.au!bruce.cs.monash.edu.au!monu6!giaeb!tim Wed Sep 23 16:54:07 EDT 1992
Article 6949 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!uunet!munnari.oz.au!bruce.cs.monash.edu.au!monu6!giaeb!tim
>From: tim@giaeb.cc.monash.edu.au (Tim Roberts)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Thought? Physical processes? Inside? Outside?
Message-ID: <tim.716691088@giaeb>
Date: 17 Sep 92 00:51:28 GMT
References: <1992Sep16.145123.782@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Sender: news@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au (Usenet system)
Organization: Monash University, Melb., Australia.
Lines: 31

mcdermot@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Timothy McDermott) writes:

>Browsing through recent postings I find:

>>> that thoughts "take place in" brain processes

>>> that brain processes "take place outside" our awareness

>Would I be right in deducing that thoughts "take place
>outside" our awareness?  And where does awareness "take
>place"?

I would say that awareness arises out of various thoughts, which of course
take place in the brain.  However, this does not mean that we are "aware" of
all of the neurons, and patterns of neurons, firing at any particular time.

To draw a crude analogy, a performance monitor in a computer collects various
statistics about how the machine is performing - but it does not generally
collect information about every instruction executed.  Thus, the monitor
executes "in" the machine, but many instructions execute "outside of" the
monitor.


-- 
Tim S Roberts
School of Applied Science                 tel:     051-226467
Monash University (Gippsland)             fax:     051-221348
Switchback Road
Churchill                                 email:   tim@giaeb.cc.monash.edu.au
Victoria 3842
Australia


