Emergence LO10618

Robert Bacal (dbt359@freenet.mb.ca)
Sun, 20 Oct 1996 23:44:00 -0500 (CDT)

Replying to LO10599 --

This whole discussion of control is fascinating..one reason being that it
seems like a nexus where lingustics, philosophy, psychology, sociology,
etc meet...a core issue. I am not sure what practical implication it has,
though. Anyone have any notion of how this issue affects behaviour?

On Sat, 19 Oct 1996, Michael McMaster wrote:

> Dale, I did not mean nor imply "conscious". I am not much interested in
> the distinction. From the perspective of complex adaptive systems and
> emergence, what gets into what we call consciousness is the result of
> emergent processes of which we are largely unaware and always will be so.
>
> As a test, find a time when "you changed your mind". Now identify the
> moment that this occurred? See if you can find what factors were
> presented to you and where they came from that resulted in your "changed
> mind".
>
> I suggest that there is no "I" that is in control. Try it on.

I have been trying desperately to understand Micheal's ideas...it is very
difficult for me. But it reminds me of the old homunculus theory, the
notion of a little person in the brain controlling the rest, but then the
problem became, who controlled the homonculus, hence a new extra one was
postulated...on into an eshcer drawing and those russian dolls.

Sentience, I think, requires that we develop a sense of self (that which
is us, and that which is not), which occurs biologically early in life and
is one of the first wired-in tasks of the infant. Our notion of ourselves
as both subject and object at the same time probably stems from that
period, and the language acquisition periods.

Our conceptualizations of ourselves (again a function of the brain as a
limited capacity information processing device that attempts to organize
and see patterns), causes us to create gestalts (patterns). We create
notions of personality, character, etc to create a sense of continuity and
predictablity about ourselves and others, regardless of how error prone
they are.

I agree with M.M. that self as both an actor and acted upon creates a
duality that, really cannot be explained as a reality.

Sorry for the ramble...this is a brain-bender.

Robert Bacal - CEO, Institute For Cooperative Communication
Internet Address - dbt359@freenet.mb.ca
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. (204) 888-9290
Join us at our Resource Centre at: http://www.winnipeg.freenet.mb.ca/~dbt359

-- 

Robert Bacal <dbt359@freenet.mb.ca>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>