wispfox

So: We have five senses (some people would argue that we have more, but let's not go there for the sake of this argument). These senses aren't particularly good at taking in the inputs and thus generate a pretty impressive error rate.

Somewhere in the multitasking hunk of meat that we carry about, we take the data being generated by these senses into some kind of processing unit somewhere in the hunk o' meat and process the suspect incoming data using a system that is notoriously opaque and appears to be quite variable between individuals. The processing unit (wherever) then takes this suspect data and through some unknown (and probably again quite variable) process generates a very suspect mental model that we take to be the truth of the matter at a particular moment. Right now I am looking out at a not-quite-bucolic scene of a little courtyard that constitutes the view out of my window. Oops that sense-impression is already obsolete.

But then I have to look at very concept of sense-impression. My "reality" is composed of innumerable "slices" of these sense-impressions (which, I cannot state strongly enough are suspect) which are tossed into a mosh-pit of an astonishingly flawed memory where they rub up against each other and a weird, almost nonsensical consensus is achieved through the good offices of a process that is poorly understood and is unusually variable between individuals.

All of these profoundly inconsistent processes occur at once and every once in a while we make the quite-uninformed decision to try and explain what the sense-impression was. Then we need to talk about language. Right now you are reading this using English. Which is a language that is particularly well suited to misdirection and misunderstanding (why do you think lawyers are needed? They are there because they are quite good at black=white).

So you are looking at a minimum of four processes that allow you to communicate your thoughts to others. Each of these processes have a absurdly high failure rate. That is why I tend to think that the idea of understanding other humans is so fraught with peril and goes wrong routinely.

I think that I am done philosophizing today. It is a pretty outside, the big oak tree's leaves are starting to change and it isn't raining. Time for shoes and socks and a walk.

Maybe later I will eat a gummi and drink a beer.