Re: death of the mind.

From: Glen Foy (spam33_at_butter.toast.net)
Date: 08/28/04 

Date: Sat, 28 Aug 2004 13:38:28 -0400

"Glen M. Sizemore" <gmsizemore2@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:4130a74f$1_5@news.athenanews.com...
> GF: The world is unimaginably complex. It is too complex to "use".
>
> GS: Where is the argument for this assertion?

Let's take the example of visual perception, and let's approach it from the
point of view of computation.

A computer cannot deal with a "real" visual image. It represents a visual
image as an array of discrete pixels. Each pixel has a particular hue and a
particular brightness. Real images are a continuum and have a much greater
number of colors and degrees of brightness. The array of pixels is a model.
The model is computable. The real image is not.

Interestingly, the eye, to some extent at least, takes the same approach.
Real images are transformed into an activation pattern of rods and cones on
the retina. And like pixels, the number of rods and cones is necessarily
finite.

I would argue that this transformation of a real image into an activation
pattern of rods and cones is a type of low level model making. The model
can be used. The real image is too complex.

-Glen

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