The Substrate
  1. I. The Importance of the Mind
  2. On the Mind and the External World
  • The Substrate
  • Prologue
  • I. The Importance of the Mind
    • The Importance of the Mind
    • On the Mind and the Body
    • On the Mind and the External World
  • II. The Nature of Life
    • The Nature of Life
    • On Success and Fulfillment of Life
    • On the Laws of Nature for Humans
    • On the Pursuit of Knowledge, Power, and Freedom
  • III. The Essence of Creation
    • The Essence of Creation
    • The Essence of Creation
  • IV. The Nature of Intelligence and Reality
    • The Nature of Intelligence and Reality
    • On Stacked Processes
❖ Work in Progress — This is an open draft. Sections are incomplete. Arguments are still forming. ❖
  1. I. The Importance of the Mind
  2. On the Mind and the External World

On the Mind and the External World

We have previously established that the brain’s function is the ingest, processing, and distribution of information, whether automatically or intentionally.

The brain and the mind then, are subject to the same risks and strengths that other means of storing, and disseminating information are:

  • Limited storage capacity (memory)
  • Misinterpretation of the original source (perception)
  • Distribution of the corrupted or incomplete information

Now I will go into detail of each of these concerns starting with memory. Memory is the function by which information is stored and retrieved. Just as a library has limited space for books, and a computer’s hard drive has limited bytes for data, our brains have limited capacity for information. In the former examples we can imagine some drawbacks from this limited space. In a library after the maximum number of books is reached, any new or higher quality information has to replace an existing book’s position or be left outside.


[Expand: On perception as lossy compression — the brain shows us enough of reality to survive, not reality as it is. We do not see ultraviolet. We do not hear what a dog hears. Every sense is a filter optimized for a biological niche, not for truth.]

[Expand: On reality and the processes of the mind.]

On the Mind and the Body
The Nature of Life
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