excreationist

Vesica:
...We do complex math unconciously and measure angles to make the pronouncement that 'There is a large object moving quickly towards me' yet many of us CAN NOT do the actual math, even when coached what do...
When we learn how motion works we are learning fuzzy patterns - and this would take months of crawling, etc, for humans to learn to some degree. In maths, the patterns involving mathematical rules and symbols are very precise - this means that there is no room for the slightest amount of error... (then your maths would be "incorrect"). When we are judging motion we only have to judge it quite approximately... unless you're playing tennis using golf clubs and a marble or something.

[ July 15, 2002: Message edited by: excreationist ]</p>

Ierrellus

John,
As a personal preference, I don't like the word "subconscious". I think there are only states of consciousness differentiated by degree of utilization. Among these may be "automatic pilot", giving the "I" a rest. Not all states of mind require use of an "internal observer".

Imagine a state of multiple personality with three "I"s.

Ierrellus
PAX

[ July 15, 2002: Message edited by: Ierrellus ]</p>

Vesica

I stand corrected on the complex math issue!
Thanks for setting me right.

John Page

Not necessarily, although maybe the answer depends upon where you draw the dividing line between self and not-self. Monitoring systems that I'm aware of (in the high-tech field) employ one of three basic techniques: a) Polling for status of the relevant sub-system; b) Sampling of data submitted as a stream from the sub-system (if it is not sampling then its not really a subsystem but part of the whole) and c) interrupts.

It is the last category I want to draw your attention to. Its very efficient and demands least resource from the super-system. Simply, it the subsystem interrupts the super system when a particular set of criteria are met. An example is communications chips in computers, they deal with the incoming and outgoing data streams, only interrupting the CPU when there is a meaningful chunk of data ready for delievery or when an abnormality has occured.

So, I agree the overall concept but there are a number of ways for information to be communicated after "delegation" has occurred.

Cheers, John

John Page

Agreed, just using conscious and subconscious is IMO unlikely to do justice to what consciousness actually is.

Cheers, John