Monday, October 02, 2006

History 01 the Structure

History 01 the Structure

(Suggested by Wendy, I plan to write something to post to make my theory to be understood easily. I think the history of the developing of the theory of mind would be the most helpful one, for the readers can step my track to get the theory by themselves.

I only research physically normal mind, my theory of mind can not be applied to physically abnormal one.)

I asked me how many errors there were between the knowledge and the reality when we were asked to investigate errors after experiment or after calculation. I was a third grade student at that time in Autumn 1991.

We were asked to investigate the reliability of engineering design in the next years. It also motivated me to answer the question of errors. Were there complete reasons to say science was scientific? Why could our designing react to reality according to scientific theories? How many errors were there during the process of the forming of scientific theories and the process of the application of those theories?

Artificial Intelligence was a hot topic when I was a graduate student from 1993 to 1996. It also motivated me much to study the working mechanism of mind.

I read any book I could get in those years except fictions. The range coved mainly material sciences ( including brain, neuron), mathematics ( including computer science), and psychology. But I did not believe in psychology at that time for I thought it was not precise.

I thought every day about mind, but I got nothing until the summer in 1996. One day, I dreamed. I found I could not distinguish the dream from reality when I was dreaming, i.e., I could only think the circumstance was real during the entire dream. I had to suppose that there would be an “agent” of reality between “me” and the real world. When the “agent” ran, I could not distinguish the illusory world as a mapping of the real world if there were no driving force of reference coming from real world and working on mind. The “agent” was usually driven by real facts coming from real world when we woke, but it could also be driven by some needs of body or of mind, or by other driving forces, and could lead to dreams, or ran wrongly to make people having no capability of distinguishing the illusory facts from the real facts (it was called mental disease). I gave the name of “direct mapping of real world” to the “agent”. It was a breaking through. From then on, a model of mind was formed gradually.

The model of mind at the first time:

Interface: when both sides of the interface combine, the two sides can not be different from each other. If they part, the two sides can be different from each other. It’s the very important function. If normally, the real one is predominant to the mapping one, the mapping one is predominant to the imaginary one, i.e., if combining, the two sides of interface should be the same as the predominant side. If reversed, the mind is abnormal physically or mentally.

The mapping of real circumstance: it’s the only “real” world mind could see, touch, feel and know. If the real world and the mapping of real world combine, we can live in the real world, if they part, and if something active in the mapping of real world, we dream.

The mapping of real body: it’s the only “real” body that mind could control. If we can actually control our body, it means the two sides of the interface, the real body and the mapping of real body, combine.

Imaginary world: it is for imagining. It participates in thinking. It also leads to intelligence and wisdom.

Imaginary controlling: if we design moving of body, it works.

Mind researching mind: where do the facts of mind come from? The mapping of real circumstance can only receive the information of mind indirectly, and what I know in my mind is only known by me, i.e., all of our knowledge of mind is derived from the indirect facts, not directly observed, or comes from our admission and acceptance of that known by one’s own mind. Expression, communication and observation have the same importance when researching mind.

Application:

I will not be puzzled by the phenomena of dream, thinking, imagination, intelligence and wisdom, science, religion, and learning.

2 comments:

Wendy said...

Nate, thanks for sharing your ideas with me. I am glad that you posted them here, and I hope that you get a lot of useful comments and discussion.

Nate said...

Hi Wendy, welcome to my blog. Thanks for your comments and advice.

Nate