Friday, May 08, 2015

Consciousness Explained by Daniel C.. Dennett

Section 3 of the Prelude describes a party game called psychoanalysis.  The dupe is told that while he is out of the room, one person will relate a "dream."  The dupe will try to figure out the dreamer and the identity if the dreamer by asking questions that have yes or no answers. However the other guests are told just to answer 'yes' if the last letter of the last word of the question ends a-n and 'no' otherwise.  A story develops from the mind of the dupe with no creator. This sounds much like what happens in dreams where the answers come from random responses to thoughts that lead the dreamer in unexpected and diverse directions.

Dennett talks about visual perception. "..objects  are identified ... by generate-and-test cycles. ... ones current expectations .. shape hypotheses for one's perceptual system to confirm or disconfirm. I notice this when I see things at a distance. My first guess if often wrong but eventually I make the identification. Later on he explains consciousness. I haven't read the details but it seems like several concurrent processes follow generate hypotheses. This seems to model what I experience when I search for a word. Various possibilities arise until I remember (sometimes).