Thursday, January 14, 2021

Decoding the Constructor Mind: Suppertime at Plato's Diner.

The foundational idea of my work describing Self Replicating Behavior Patterns is the idea that there is an aspect of the human psyche that I have dubbed the "Constructor Mind"; the portion of our mind that controls the particulars which govern the formation of the experience we call "waking consciousness". Furthermore; my work posits that social interactions can have a large influence on the Constructor mind, which in turn has a describable impact of human behavior.

 Attempting to describe the particular of this aspect of the human psyche presents distinct conceptual challenges- because in trying to describe the Constructor Mind I am attempting to describe the psychological equivalent of dark matter; it cannot be observed directly- however its existence can nonetheless be inferred (and to some degree its characteristics described) by careful observation of the behavior of other objects.

Over the past several years I have invested a great deal of effort in attempting to construct an adaquate metaphor to convey my ideas about the Constructor Mind, and (thanks in large part to collaboration with a variety of posters over at breadnroses.net) I feel I have crafted a very useful metaphor that I call "Plato's Diner".



Plato's Diner



Imagine a small Diner with a table for one, inside the dining room is where the meal of waking consciousness is continually served. The kitchen where the food is prepared is separated from the dining room by a thick wall- only a narrow slot through which prepared meals are past connects the two areas. Very little sound/no information of use is ever conveyed between the dining room and the kitchen- occasionally there are some indistinct thumping noises and soft hisses that can be heard, but these noises have no meaning to the person sitting in the dining room and consuming the meal of waking consciousness.

The Constructor Mind in this metaphor is the chef, using the kitchen equipment (the subconscious mind) to transform the raw ingredients of sensory data into the prepared dishes that constitute the meal of waking consciousness. The person consuming waking consciousness cannot see the chef, cannot see the cooking process, and cannot see the raw ingredients- their only knowledge of the kitchen and the chef comes from consuming the meal of waking consciousness.

Now let us consider the sensory experience of a sunset- lets (for the sake of this metaphor) represent the raw sensory (visual in this case) data of a sunset with raw potatoes which the chef will prepare as part of a meal. The raw potatoes (sensory data of a sunset) enters into the kitchen (subconscious) and is processed by the chef (Constructor Mind) into (for the sake of simplicity) potatoes-au-gratin.

"I see now" exclaims the person sitting in the diner "potatoes are very soft and covered in cheese sauce". And this is the only way this person has of understanding what a potatoe is- as soft and roasted and covered in a creamy cheese sauce.

Let us suppose then that in the upper portion of this room is an air vent that connects to another identical Diner- with its own kitchen and chef and customer, and let us suppose further that by shouting the different dining rooms are able communicate with each other- with the important caveat they cannot directly see or smell the dishes each is being served. Rather, the customers are only able to try to describe to each other the dishes they are consuming.

Let us say then that raw potatoes (a sunset) are delivered to both kitchens, however, the chef of this 2nd kitchen does not know how to prepare potatoes-au-gratin, so instead he makes french fries. And when he serves his dish to his customer this new customer exclaims "I see now! Potatoes are crispy and salty!"

This will introduce a disagreement between the customers that simply cannot be resolved- because both of them are ultimately accurately describing their own experience of potatoes. And no matter what arguments are proposed or statements made, this conflict over the true nature of potatoes cannot ever be resolved.

Now let us take this further and suppose that there is a third Diner attached via air vents and that all three customers can communicate with each other- add lettuce further proposed that this new customer is being served skillet potatoes. All three customers are having very different experiences of the same raw ingredient, and none of them can truly agree.

This is where the chef enters the situation, as each Chef can listen in on the conversations between the customers, even though the chef cannot directly participate. Let us propose that this third chef is a "Super Adaptor" and is constantly listening in on the of the food prepared by other chefs to influence how he prepares his own dishes for his customer.

Upon hearing the description of french fries, this chef realizes that they can adapt their version of skillet potatoes to be similar to the description they have overheard of french fries. And thus, overtime and several iterations- this third chef begins serving french fries whenever it is given potatoes. The customer of this third chef then expclaims "I see now, potatoes are crunchy and salty!"

With two customers now always describing potatoes as salty and crunchy, this motivates our original chef to begin to experiment with potatoes until they arrive at their own approximation of french fries.