Post by tracyorigel on Apr 1, 2016 23:52:56 GMT
1. Explain the virtual simulation theory of consciousness.
According to the text, Is the Universe an App?, written by Andrea Diem-Lane and David C. Lane, the brain is a processor of sorts, of which it accomplishes simulation of what we call reality. Every piece of our body is a contribution to that simulation, “what we see, hear, touch, and smell…” (Diem-Lane & Lane, 106) are all stimuli which help form the world we perceive. The world being a “virtual environment”, and the universe a computer simulation in itself. This applies to both our waking state, and our dreaming state—wherein we hallucinate images, we are perceiving those images from things with which we are familiar, whether it is a manifestation of our faith and/or beliefs. As Faqir Chand stated, “…your real helper, is your own Self and your own Faith, but you are badly mistaken and believe that somebody from without comes to help you.” (108) This goes back to Plato’s Allegory of the cave, where people see shadows of objects to which they assign names to those objects. It is the same with the virtual simulation theory, our senses take in every dot of information and our brains construct an environment associate with the gathered information.
2. How does the brain trick us and for what benefit is it for our genetic survival?
When we see something, we believe that we are seeing it as it is happening, however we actually see it moments after it has already happened. The same goes for what we can and cannot see, our senses “provide us with a severely edited version…” of what our bodies need in order to survive and pass on our DNA. (Diem-Lane & Lane, 99) The brain seems like a filter, there is a bunch of data floating around in the universe, and rather than take in all that data, it only takes what it needs to ensure survival. If it were to take in all the data, we most likely wouldn’t know what to do with all that information. As Aldous Huxley argued, “…our only viable response would be one of perpetual catatonia.” (99) It makes sense and we can compare this argument to the capacity at which certain computers can carry out several processes at once. I know that if I were to take my home computer and have it run several processes at once, it might freeze up and crash. It just can’t handle it, and I think it’s the same for us humans; if we were to actually see reality as it were, then we might just crash. Our brains trick us and filter these stimuli, and it does so for good purpose, so that we can keep on living and want to keep on living so that we can pass on our genetics.
References:
Diem-Lane, Andrea, and David C. Lane. Is the Universe an App? Walnut: MSAC Philosophy Group, 2014. PDF.
According to the text, Is the Universe an App?, written by Andrea Diem-Lane and David C. Lane, the brain is a processor of sorts, of which it accomplishes simulation of what we call reality. Every piece of our body is a contribution to that simulation, “what we see, hear, touch, and smell…” (Diem-Lane & Lane, 106) are all stimuli which help form the world we perceive. The world being a “virtual environment”, and the universe a computer simulation in itself. This applies to both our waking state, and our dreaming state—wherein we hallucinate images, we are perceiving those images from things with which we are familiar, whether it is a manifestation of our faith and/or beliefs. As Faqir Chand stated, “…your real helper, is your own Self and your own Faith, but you are badly mistaken and believe that somebody from without comes to help you.” (108) This goes back to Plato’s Allegory of the cave, where people see shadows of objects to which they assign names to those objects. It is the same with the virtual simulation theory, our senses take in every dot of information and our brains construct an environment associate with the gathered information.
2. How does the brain trick us and for what benefit is it for our genetic survival?
When we see something, we believe that we are seeing it as it is happening, however we actually see it moments after it has already happened. The same goes for what we can and cannot see, our senses “provide us with a severely edited version…” of what our bodies need in order to survive and pass on our DNA. (Diem-Lane & Lane, 99) The brain seems like a filter, there is a bunch of data floating around in the universe, and rather than take in all that data, it only takes what it needs to ensure survival. If it were to take in all the data, we most likely wouldn’t know what to do with all that information. As Aldous Huxley argued, “…our only viable response would be one of perpetual catatonia.” (99) It makes sense and we can compare this argument to the capacity at which certain computers can carry out several processes at once. I know that if I were to take my home computer and have it run several processes at once, it might freeze up and crash. It just can’t handle it, and I think it’s the same for us humans; if we were to actually see reality as it were, then we might just crash. Our brains trick us and filter these stimuli, and it does so for good purpose, so that we can keep on living and want to keep on living so that we can pass on our genetics.
References:
Diem-Lane, Andrea, and David C. Lane. Is the Universe an App? Walnut: MSAC Philosophy Group, 2014. PDF.