WHY A NEW MODEL OF REALITY by Wolfgang Baer

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WHY A NEW MODEL OF REALITY? byWolfgang Baer
Because our current models cannot explain the
Hard Problem of Consciousness.
Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness,
David Chalmers, Journal of Consciousness Studies
2(3)200-19, 1995 http//consc.net/papers/facing.h
tml
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The Monocular Visual Field of Ernest Mach
This picture shows the perspective of a man
looking out through his left eye. The nose and
mustache are drawn in the foreground. The body is
shown reclining on a chair with feet propped up
in front. A bookshelf is shown on the left fading
into the peripheral visual field.
Mach, E. (1867) contributions to the Analysis of
the Sensations (tr. By C. M. Williams), Chicago
Open Court.
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Defining the Third Eye
By redrawing the visual field inside a a closed
dark foreground we enhance the impression that
one is looking into a personal perceptive display
of the external world rather than out at the
external world directly.
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Dualism
The perceptual display is here drawn inside a
thought bubble to underscore the fact that we are
seeing the drawing of mental images rather than
external reality. Dualism is the belief that
these mental images are not mere hallucinations
but rather exact copies of a real physical
world. The real brain of a real Max Plank,
sitting in a lounge chair, is assumed to have
generated the mental images.
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Mind Body Interaction
We believe there is some mechanism by which the
body generates mental images. We also believe the
mind has some means of effecting reality and that
the feelings, emotions, and mental images we all
experience has some directive influence on our
bodies. We indicate our belief in the existence
of a mind body interaction by drawing a series of
connecting bubbles between the mind and body.
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Co-location Problem
Or how do the Images locate Reality?
Image of Apple appears 1 meters away.
Light strikes the apple, is absorbed by the
retina of the eye, and generates electric pulses
in the cortex of the brain. The image of the
apple appears one meters in front of Max Planks
face. How does a physical phenomena in the cortex
produce an image so far away?
Physical Activity causing image.
Real Apple
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Two Approaches to Solutions
Mind Ray Solution
Neural Co-location
There is some form of mental ray that projects
images from the brain to where they appear.
The image is actually co-located with neural
activity in the brain.
Even though this implies the very space we feel
around us is actually inside our heads, this is
the solution science is believed to be the answer
and is being pursued.
Even though we assume this solution in every day
operation there is nothing in science that
suggests such a phenomena.
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Classic Physics and Scale Model Theories
Over 1500 years ago St. Augustine postulated that
the connection between the mind and body happened
in the pituitary gland. According to this view
the three dimensional world experienced in the
3d Eye is a perceptual sensation that does not
directly correspond to the real world but is
instead a scale model of the real world. The
image of the apple happens in the pituitary
gland. While the illusion of distance is
explained by consistent scaling of all images
including the one of ones own body.
Is there a small apple in there?
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But can we find it?
If we look very carefully at the brain we do not
see any pattern of physical phenomena that looks
like a scale model of the external world. In fact
the signals break up to look less and less like
the world from which they came the deeper we look
into the brain. Failure to find a scale model
have lead to go for Neural Correlates of
Consciousness instead. Perhaps the brain operates
like a hologram.
Are There Neural Correlates of Consciousness?
Alva Noë and Evan Thompson Journal of
Consciousness Studies, 11, No. 1, 2004, pp. 328
http//people.ucsc.edu/anoe/NCC.pdf
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So what is Reality, really?
No one has ever seen reality directly
2000 years ago Plato said we were like beings
permanently trapped in a cave with our backs to
the entrance. Our sensations are like the shadows
of the outside reality projected on the walls of
the cave. Reality itself, Plato concluded, must
be very bright. All we know for sure today is
that reality causes mental images in ourselves
and others. And we know this by definition of
the word reality.
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Is Reality probabilities?
Its an Apple.
?
No! Its a banana.
Atomic and nuclear physicist say reality cannot
be an object but can be the probabilities that
the image of an object will appear when we look
at them. This leads to Everets multi-world
theory of reality.
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This does not make sense!

Our theory of reality cannot explain mental
images even in principle.
See Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness,
David Chalmers, Journal of Consciousness Studies
2(3)200-19, 1995 http//consc.net/papers/facing.h
tml
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LETS TRY THIS AGAIN!
WHAT DO WE KNOW?
1) Mental images are undeniable experiences.
2) Reality is whatever explains experiences
consistently and simply.
3) We can never see reality directly but only
know it through its symbolic representation or
model.
4) Our current physical models do not explain
consciousness
So we must find a better model!