Fragment 11

In order to understand thought worlds, Egregores, and the rest, we must turn our attention to the materials that make up thought entities. In simple terms, we must examine the mental brick and mortar that are used to construct mental entities. To do this we must understand thinking. I have examined these issues at some length in "5 Meditations on the Nature of Mind" @ processidealim.blogspot.com. Humans think in scenarios, this is the true nature of thinking. Thoughts are not static, but dynamic. It is the fixed abstractions that are the anomaly in human thinking. (I shall have much more to say about this in coming Fragments.). Next we must understand that information is carried on emotions and feelings. Emotions are the default search engine for the human mind and memory.Without desire, or appetition there is no consciousness. This is the mistake that present A.I. theorists make. The first degree of mind is instinct. This is very straight forward and easy to observer. A sensation triggers a response, that seems totally mechanical. Examples would be when a tree drops its leaves when the temperature drops, the changes of puberty occur when a child reaches a certain age. Let us examine the the tree example in more detail. The cold is what I call an "image-trigger". The term "image" is not meant to be confined to visual sensation, but could also be audio, tactile, etc. So when the temperature drops to a certain sevel the tree drops its leaves. This is also an example of a very simple scenario, although for the tree this scenario is totally unconsciousness. If the temperature does not get cold enough a tree still drops its leaves. (plants have analogous activity to animals they just do things much more slowly) This is where we move into the second degree of mind which I call intellect. The tree must figure out and decide to drop its leaves. It has been posited that the shorter periods of daylight is the new trigger, but the reason the tree drops its leaves is its desire, or will to survive. I have posited that life always wants to expand in space and time. the two most common ways of doing this to avoid death, and reproduction. The above scenario is why the philosopher Henri Bergson said that there is always sleeping intellect in all instinct. This appetition to expand is often referred to as "the will to survive" or "the will to power" in philosophy. What intellect does is allow the entity to change or adopt an new image-trigger If the new image-trigger is succeeds then it is turned into instinct by memory. When we have mastered a skill to the point we do not have to think about it would be an example. Let us examine another example. A hungry pigeon encounters rice for the first time. The pigeon inspects the rice (looks at it, smells it etc.)Then it eats some of the rice. The rice satisfies the pigeons hunger, so the rice becomes a new image-trigger for eating and hunger. Again we observe the information is carried on the emotions, and feelings. In the case of the pigeon the feeling of hunger is the feeling that carries the information (rice). The last degree of mind, I have called "imagination". Imagination is found in humans, and in a lesser degree in some animals.This is when a scenario can be lifted, or sublated (I use the term "sublate" to define a move to a higher level of abstraction) from their usual context, and examined, and judged. Let us use an example form the animal kingdom. We can observe this in rats that are taught to run mazes sometimes refuse to run the maze. It has judged that the treat for running the maze is not worth the effort.This seems the origin of imagination. Humans are always comparing scenarios to judge whether they are worth the effort. or the risk. Humans can also create new scenarios to attach to an image-trigger. Of course, for this to happen image-triggers must have been sublated into conscious activity. This happens when an image-trigger becomes an abstraction, or as I prefer a sigil. The term "abstraction" does not seem to capture the feeling-emotional basis of information. I shall have much more to say say about these issues in future "Fragments". To wrap up this "Fragment" it is interesting to note that the above discussion provides the key to the mine-body problem. (see my essay: "Dissolving Wittgenstein" @processidealim.blogspot.com.) That mental and physical process are activity. Physical scenarios can be rehearsed in the mind before being tried out in the physical world. In other words thinking. a Necromancer.