Computer (software / hardware) anology to the mind / matter problem
Or
knowing what God in fact IS
As far as it goes, let us propose and assume here that we can make the analogy of how a computer works and how our minds versus matter works.
- Software is then the analogy for consciousness (mind);
- Hardware is then the anology for matter
In a computer we can store all kind of information. Although there are other (more sophistocated) storage and retrieval systems, one of the most used is that of a hierarchical directory structure.
A directory structure is defined as follows. A directory is just a name or label for a storage case where files of all possibe types can be stored; any directory can be a sub-directory of it's parent.
But in able to acces the directory structure, we have to assume or state something. In fact the directory structure needs a root, otherwise we could have in principle an infinite directory structure, without there being a entrance directory.
Computer systems are thus built that they have a main entrance, the root directory, to access the fysical storage system.
But we can also access information in the computer using virtual strorage / retrieval structures. For instance in the case we have several disk units (each having their own root) or gave access to a network, we must provide a new upper level for access.
On a windows computer, therefore we have a virtual entrance to all our fysical storage units in the form of a Desktop.
This level is virtual, since it isn't a fysical thing, although it is implemented as a directory on your boot disk (for example: C:\WINDOWS\DESKTOP).
For a mind, to have access to and perform the functions in consciousness, we also need a main entrance level. We need to assume something, or base ourselves on something.
This can be understood as that we have constructed axiomatic systems, that all need to take some basic assumptions, and be based on some fundamental axioms.
The axioms themselves are nothing but founding axioms, on which all of the formal system is built. The axiom itself can however not be reasoned about, within that particular belief system.
But as the mathematician Kurt Godel showed, no formal system can be complete and consistent at the same time. It means there are statements within the formal system of which the truth value is unkown.
Another anology between how consciousness works and how software works is that in order for a computer to function, it needs to know certain things. It needs some basic information to start the system, and to perform anything.
In computer jargon this is known as the boot operation. It starts with executing a procedure in the ROM BIOS, that then subsequently starts a boot program on the boot disk in the boot sector of the boot partition.
This performs some basic operations, which enables the computer and software that can run on the computer, to know how and where it can access the peripherals, it loads the necessary (OS dependend) device drivers, etc.
Consciousness needs also to have some basic knowledge, in order for it to know how it can 'trust' it's own awareness. It needs to know how to interpret certain input data.
There needs to be some hardcoded information in the brain, that enable us to verrify the truth of something.
How can we know for instance that we are not living an illusion, that there in fact is an objective reality which we have acces to through our sensory perceptions.
This is a very basic and fundamental philosophical issue, known as
The Fundamental Question
How can we know that - in fact - there is an objective reality, and that this is not just an illusion created by our own minds?
The answer is: we can go into a self diagnosis, and verify the truth of all our knowledge and the truth about our sensory perceptions.
Such a self test / self diagnosis, is like making a radical assumption about reality, to verify the truth about reality itself.
We could for example assume that no such reality AT ALL exists, and then see where this assumption would lead to. It would lead to the fact that in last instance we have to acknowledge the fact that at least our mental activity itself exists (since we perceive of them), and that without there being an objective world, no such activity could exist either. This would urge us then to conclude that our initial assumption (reality itself, as everything which is outside and independend of our own mind) can not be true.
Wether we call this hardwired self test/ self diagnose procedure God, a fundamental postulate or just state that the material world itself can not fail to exist, is not much different, and they provide for us the same function: having a basic and fundamental postuale about reality itself.
It's our hardwired basic proposition about reality: we have to assume that reaility itself exists, and need to be able to verify that, and that is not something we can alter, since it is not LEARNT but is hardwired in our circuits.
If we can recognize and acknowledge this fundamental knowledge we have about the world and about our consciousness, most quarels and discussions between for example theism and atheism could be satisfactory solved.
We just have to get rid of the IDEA that this hardwired internal self verification thing, is something OUTSIDE of our own consciousness, but just part of our consciousness, and forms for that the basic layer. It's a basic proposition about reality itself, that enables us to verify and acknowledge the truth about reality.
Human culture through history has developed this into a form of religion, but in current days with current available knowledge we can see this in a different perspective and get rid of the human developed concepts itself, which have been added to this, and adresses the reality of this.
The
conclusion of our self test are these:
- Reality itself can never fail to exist, since we can never assume we ourselves (our mental processes) do not exist.
- Our awareness about reality, are a truth knowable to us, which we can verify at the basis of this self test.
- This basic proposition we have about our consciousness and how it relates to the outside world, enables us to verify the truth of our awarenesses about the outer objective reality.
Or stated a bit differently:
- 'God' (the self test / self diagnose hardcoded in our brain) resides in our own mind, as the most basic level (comparable with a ROM BIOS procedure in the computer anology)
- 'God' creates our awareness, in the sense that it enables us to verify the truth of those awarenesses, and acknowledge the fact that an objective reality DOES in fact exist.
- It can however not be concluded that the awareness about reality and it's truth base, which are consolidated entirely within our own minds, have any relevanve to the outside objective world itself.
- 'God' did therefore not 'create' the outside world itself, only our inner perception and trust in the reality of it.
