"Wilson, Robert Anton - Prometheus Rising" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilson Robert Anton)

ALL MODELS ARE SUBJECT TO REVISION AS THIS BOOK GOES ALONG. THEY ARE ALSO SUBJECT TO REVISION AFTER THE BOOK IS FINISHED Ч BY THE AUTHOR OR BY THE READER

Prometheus Rising



Tentative Model #1: The perceived universe is a mixture of the "real universe" and our own "Thinker"Чproving its pet beliefs.

CHAPTER TWO



HARDWARE & SOFTWARE: THE BRAIN & ITS PROGRAMS





We, as a species, exist in a world in which exist a myriad of data points.1 Upon these matrices of points we superimpose a structure2 and the world makes sense to us. The pattern of the structure originates within our biological and sociological properties.3

Ч Persinger and Lafreniere, Space-Time Transients and Unusual Events







' In our terminology, these data points are events or actions, i.e. verbs,

not nouns.

^ In our terminology, models or maps, static things; nouns not verbs. 3 In our terminology, brain hardware and software.

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We will, throughout this book, consider the human brain a kind of bio-computerЧan electro-colloidal computer, as distinct from the electronic or solid-state computers which exist outside our heads.

Please note carefully and long remember that we have not said that the human brain is a computer. The Aristotelian idea that to understand something you must know what it is has been abandoned in one science after another, for the pragmatic reason that the simple word "is" introduces so many metaphysical assumptions that we can argue forever about them. In the most advanced sciences, such as mathematical physics, nobody talks about what anything is anymore. They talk about what model (or map) can best be used to understand whatever we are investigating.

In general, this scientific habit of avoiding "is" can be profitably extended to all areas of thought. Thus, when you read anywhere that A is B, it will clarify matters if you translate this as "A can be considered as, or modeled by, B."

When we say A is B, we are saying that A is only what it appears within our field of study or our area of specialization. This is saying too much. When we say A can be considered as B, or modeled by B, we are saying exactly as much as we have a right to say, and no more.

We therefore say that the brain can be considered as a computer; but we do not say it is a computer.

The brain appears to be made up of matter in electro-colloidal suspension (protoplasm).

Colloids are pulled together, toward a condition of gel, by their surface tensions. This is because surface tensions pull all glue-like substances together.