PP8 The Deepest Depths of Philosophy
G'day. My name is Bruce Robertson, and this is Pirate Philosophy. In this series of videos I will be describing an original philosophy, one that you won’t find anywhere else, but it is one that is logical, rigorous, and dynamic. Welcome to Pirate Philosophy.
In the previous video, I discussed the preparation for our philosophical journey and how we would only take with us the concept of evolution, a logical processor and a compass. In today’s video, I want first to go to the very depths of philosophy and suggest how a division between the material and the immaterial might be manifest. And after that we will make a start on our journey.
So let’s start with some material, I will be using some wooden blocks to illustrate what I am suggesting.
They are matter, purely matter, nothing but matter. But suppose I arrange them in a particular way....
But if I arrange the matter in this particular form, it then becomes something more than just matter; matter has become symbolic. These are symbols that we recognize, and these symbols can have significance. I could change it just a little bit and the whole significance of the symbols changes
Or I can arrange them in another way
I can arrange the material like this; something that is completely different.
These are different symbols with different significance. The point I want to make is that the separation of the immaterial from the material is through an arrangement of material and this arrangement can be symbolic and significant. And you, yourself, are both material and immaterial. You have a mind and awareness that is unique to you. And what I am suggesting is that it is the arrangement of the material of which you are composed that allows for your immaterial mind.
But where does this significance come from, how is it achieved? Well, that is something we can explore on our philosophical journey.
So now where can we start to explore the development of symbols? Let us begin with the concept of evolution and a logical processor as mentioned at the start of this video. Let us go to a time of evolution at the very start of animal life; it is a world full of plant life. And we will look at a primeval animal and how it might interact with the world. We will allow this animal to have sensory organs such as vision or perhaps smell, and perhaps some internal senses as well as to its overall well-being, such as the fullness of its stomach. It has motor outputs as well that enable it to move its body and perhaps have a biting movement with its mouth. And by motor output I mean a control of its muscles. It also has a proto-brain that controls its motor outputs in response to its sensory data. And while this brain is a physical entity in the same way that a heart or liver are physical entities. Its operation can be modeled using logic; and by logic I mean a set of rules that determine how it operates. And since this is philosophy, we shall be focusing entirely on its logic, rather than its physical characteristics. It is important to note that at this stage of development, the logical processor has no concepts of anything; it has no concepts of its sensory data nor its motor outputs; it just has rules that determine how it processes the data and how it operates its motor outputs.
The question now is: what sort of rules would enable it to function as a viable animal? Clearly these rules will be developed through trial and error and a process of evolution; some will work effectively, and the animal thrives; whereas others will not work, and the animal and its genes do not survive.
So now we will use our compass to point in the direction of the sort of rules that would enable the animal to flourish. So what might these rules be? At the simplest level, what the animal can do is to take a portion of the data store it and then apply its motor outputs such as moving forward and biting; depending on whether this improves its overall well-being, which he will perhaps know from the fullness of its stomach.
We can illustrate this using the wooden blocks. Suppose the animal encounters some data it could be visual or olfactory (i.e., smell) and it can store the data as this:
And suppose the rules of the logical processor are along the lines of: 'if the data is unrecognized move forward and bite'. Perhaps the animal does not recognize this shape and so moves forward and bites. Then the associated information from the stomach, which we can represent with the stone, can be stored alongside the original data shape.
So that is what the animal does store this, and we can represent it like this:
Suppose then it encounters a different set of data:
It does not recognise the shape and so again, it moves forward and bites. This time the signal from its stomach is different and can be represented by the shell. So it stores that somewhere within its logical processor.
And then it encounters another bit of data which is this
And it recognizes it, and it is associated with the stone. And suppose that within its rules it says that 'if a piece of data is associated with a stone then move forward and bite, and if it is associated with a shell then it is to avoid and go elsewhere'. So our animal encounters the above and associates it with a stone it moves forward and bites. And it continues to do this for the rest of its life, which is unfortunately rather short and it dies. It does not survive to pass on its genes.
But it has a sibling; with very similar logical rules, except that the logical rules for the sibling are that 'if it finds a shell then it is to move forward and bite and if it is a rock, it is to avoid it'. So then this organism comes along and it sees a bit of data like this
And it avoids it then it comes across a bit of data like this
And it moves forward, and bites. And this organism survives and reproduces so that its genes can pass on.
What I am showing here is how a primitive animal can use its logical processor to interact with the world to benefit itself in an entirely mechanical way. And also to show how evolution can impact on the logical rules which it follows.
But this animal has no idea of what it is doing, it is entirely inanimate. It is interacting with its environment in an entirely mechanical way. It has no conception of anything; neither itself nor the world. And no matter how complex or refined this system, of storing data and reacting to it, becomes, the logical processor can never be more than an inanimate machine.
Much the same goes for modern computers and artificial intelligence; they are entirely inanimate; they have no concept of themselves nor the world nor anything.
People are different; we have concepts of the world; we have an understanding of the world. So how is it possible that such an animal as we have been discussing could evolve into an animal that has awareness of itself and of its environment in the way that other animals, such as us humans have awareness of ourselves and our surroundings? This will be discussed in the next video.
Well, that is all I have for you today If you have any interesting comments or questions about today’s video, please leave then in the comments section below. And if you would like to continue this journey with me, then please subscribe to my channel give it a thumbs up and ring the bell. Thank you.
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