From: Robin Hanson (rhanson@gmu.edu)
Date: Fri Sep 08 2000 - 09:09:19 MDT
Hal Finney wrote:
> >our conscious minds are more like the PR department of our minds ...
>
>Yes, I think that's very true. ... If we see a tawny jungle cat as a pile
>of brown leaves, we won't last very long. So perceptual illusions are
>relatively rare.
>However no such pressure operates in the mind. There is little need to
>maintain an accurate picture of its internal workings. Rather, what is
>needed is a convenient picture, one which facilitates survival even if
>it has little bearing to the truth. ...
>Imagine ... we have a collection of agents... to construct a fictional
>consciousness, a memory trace which is created after the fact and which
>presents a fictional but unified picture of the mind's activities.
Even if there is no direct pressure for truth, there may be indirect
pressures. It all depends on what exactly the evolutionary function of
consciousness is. It is obviously something social, and I alluded to
a "PR" model, but that's still pretty vague. Even PR departments tell
the truth sometimes.
Robin Hanson rhanson@gmu.edu http://hanson.gmu.edu
Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
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