Tucson Presentation 2016

Tucson Presentation 2016

DUALISM PHYSICALLY EMBODIED


By Richard J. R. Miles (Independent Scholar)


This is probably the most overlooked or ignored approach to human function and consciousness. Believers and or brainsians will struggle to understand this or even avoid it altogether!
What about you? Bodies evolve without brains. Brains do not evolve without bodies. All life has an inherent capability in their structure for movement, which reacts with their environment. The body forms and contains the basis for memory and intentionality, it is the driver of the 3 F’s or needs, deeds and seeds. No need for a homunculus. Trying to understand the brain without the body is like trying to work out what an E.C.U. does, without knowing how or to what it is connected or interfaced. That is similar to what brainsians try to do. They think it is all about the brain, the body is banal. However, the body, brain and senses evolved together.

The Venus flytrap gets some nutrition capturing insects. The sea squirt is born with a brain which it digests once it is attached to the sea bed, showing the economics of nature. If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. Some people seem like that. The connectome of the brain is necessary for moving around in an ever changing environment, connecting the internal autonomic action driver to the required external somatic action. Some simple creatures external somatic activity does not seem separable from their internal autonomic activity. The 3 F’s drives them to do whatever is required and what opportunity allows. It seems possible for some simple creatures to be aware of their selves in the environment without necessarily having conscious memory of their selves, functioning with nature and nurture.

Refer to ‘Current Zoology’: ‘From Foraging to autonoetic consciousness’ by Thomas T. Hills and Stephen Butterfil
61 (2); 368:381, 2015
A simple creature is of course not simple at all. I use the term as David Chalmers refers to the easy problem, that is we know quite a lot of what goes on and how some things function. What we don’t, we can be quite inventive with design and constructs and even making something like a simple creature, i.e. robotic vac or lawn mower.

It would have been a simple creature that would have evolved a more complex system for the 3 F’s but this came at a cost. A complex body, nervous system and brain needed more fuel to run and maintain. A means of conserving energy evolved, which allowed part of the brain and body to be used when necessary and relaxed when not. This separability was to prove more advantageous for survival by conserving and making better use of energy, than having all of the brain and body working 24/7. Sleep being different from hibernation.
Reference My Abstract 2016

Separation of the initiation of control of some of the somatic nervous system, from the autonomic nervous system gradually evolved. Allowing sleep to relax and isolate some somatic function, conserving energy. Leaving the autonomic system to function undisturbed, or even enhanced. With memory the physical interaction between these now separable nervous systems is what has allowed awareness of the environment and the self to occur. If AI is to achieve consciousness like a human, then this interaction needs to be emulated not just simulated. An analogy of the nervous spectrum can be represented by the colours black and white, black being the non-conscious zombie autonomic and white being the conscious somatic. Black and white are different, but are connected by at least fifty shades of grey. Also analogous to the nervous spectrum, is infra red and ultra violet, which are part of their same spectrum but are quite different, as is the handle of the bat to the part that hits the ball. Pain and pleasure are part of the communication of feelings between the non-conscious and the conscious of the nervous spectrum. Without this interaction we would not be conscious.

An example of interaction between the non-conscious autonomic and the conscious somatic is male orgasm. Initiated by conscious somatic action and concluded by the supplier, which is the non-conscious autonomic. Our conscious activity is relatively small compared to the large amount of non-conscious activity. It is not surprising that we have difficulty in trying to understand what is referred to as our soul, or how we came to evolve in the largely unknown universe of the micro and macro spectrum. Some people experience disharmony with their nervous spectrum interaction, for many reasons, all physically related. This can result in conflicts, addictions, self harm and suicide. You are fortunate if you have harmony throughout your life. We can, and all do somatically reproduce the interaction of what is autonomically occurring with us.We do this with communication, music, art, organisation and design. This can range from the beautiful peaceful and tranquil, to the horror of the scream, devastation and pain.

 

Thank you for reading this. Richard J. R. Miles

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