Thought, pattern and consciousness
October 11, 2018 preprint DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/esmqy (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that thought is a copyable pattern, that most of a person's thoughts are copied from others and control the person, and that people cannot know whether their beliefs match reality because truth judgments arise from physiological activity. Also contends that consciousness is a real evolutionary novelty and that no concept can be defined precisely, since definitions always depend on other undefined words. |
Abstract
Thought can be copied from one person to another. Thought is a pattern. Pattern is more than thought. Patterns are everywhere. Pattern can be copied between nonlife and life. For example, when a person sees a ball, the ball's shape as a pattern can be copied into the person's mind. When the person says the word "ball", the sound "ball" is a pattern copied from the ball in his mind.Currently we know that consciousness only arises in complex neuron network of life. Consciousness contain patterns. The feeling of having consciousness in oneself's mind is a pattern. This pattern can be copied. A person can describe the content of his consciousness, and other people will get it.Consciousness is something new invented in life's evolution. It is real. People do have consciousness, they are not zombies who don't have consciousness but can act as if they have it. Being consciousness created some new thoughts in human kind's mind.Patterns copied among people. Most thoughts in one's mind are copied from other people. The thoughts in one's mind control this person. The person is controlled by his thoughts. He can't control his thoughts. A person decides something is true or false by his physiological activity. If a person decide that something is true, that thing can be true in reality, and it is also possible that that thing can be false in reality. The problem is that a person cannot know whether the thing is true or not in reality, although he can decide it in his mind. "True" or "false" are two concepts. All other concepts have the same problem. Human have concepts in their mind, and they can be copied among people, but they cannot be defined precisely enough. In fact, there is no way to define any concept really precisely. All definitions will use words, but we can't define any word without using other words. For example, what is "red"? How to define red as a color precisely? And how do we define "color"? How can we explain the concept "color" to a blind person? We can't.