Consciousness: The Why Function

In the previous post, we talked about the gap (here). Now, the why function is a gap function that originates from the philosophical nature of consciousness. In the previous post, we also talked about perspectives, where we pointed out that two mutually exclusive perspectives create a gap. We shall see also that the why function is a perspectival function.

The question “Why?” comes up time and time again in human experience. Of course, we use ‘why’ in verbal communication when asking common questions, but there is also an existential dimension to this. Written or spoken language is the final expression of conscious process. Before words can come out from our vocal cords, logical processes have to take place in the brain (or CPU) first, and depending on the depth of such process we are able to make meaning. The existential ‘why’ makes use of a universal perspective P.

Someone experiencing an existential crisis tends to ask deep ‘why’ questions: why do I exist? Why am I here? One continues to ask these questions wildly and in turn they lead to anxiety. The physical process involved here is an ‘explosive’ process, akin to a miniaturized ‘big-bang’ (certain parts of the brain light up). Meaning that at first the gap function that is the why function might not be strong, but as the process continues it becomes more pronounced, it exponentiates. 

We write the why function as an integral function below.

Where R denotes the object of curiosity (?): Realiity
P denotes the universal perspective
Exponent ‘n’ denotes depth of perception (P)

 

 

Consciousness: The Gap

We introduced the differential in the first consciousness post (here), then we went forward to talk about subjectives (here) which are short-term value functions (STVF) attached to sensory information. Now, we shall discuss the real gate.

In the previous post also, we talked about ‘events’, and we said that events can only be ‘perceived’ or observed after subjectives have been attached to information (raw data). A perspective is the resultant of subjective information. To begin, let us first define reality.

Reality is a complex system of perspectives. 

It is important at this point to have a clear definition of reality, because if we take a serious look at consciousness, we’d notice that part of what makes us conscious, per se, is the physical space we exist in. Let’s call this space Real Space (RSp). Space is a precondition for consciousness. So in our quest for conscious AI, we will have to create a mind space (MSp) that would act as a physical space for future robots. Remember that our physical space cannot be their own space, since they didn’t ‘naturally’ evolve from it. So, AI consciousness would inevitably be an ‘implicit’ phenomenon. Implicit because their physical space would also act as a mind space.

So, an android observes the event of a planet in space, say Earth, resulting in a perspective. The same android experiences another event, say, a pair of shoes. These 2 events are part of our reality, but one might ask; what does a pair of shoes have to do with a planet in space, right? But one thing is certain, these 2 perspectives are connected due to the simple fact that they exist in the same physical space and owing to their chronological order as well. We say that these 2 perspectives are ‘culturally’ related. Below is an illustration.

In the illustration above, we have perspective P1 and mutually exclusive perspective P2. We call it the real gate or culture gate. These two seemingly unrelated perspectives create a phenomenon; the gap. The gap is the fundamental of all consciousness because so many other phenomenons arise as a result. The gap is also the differential, d. We shall treat these other phenomenons in time and we shall also call them gap functions.

The gap is fundamental to consciousness because it is the seat of philosophical inquiry. If we observe well enough, we’d notice that philosophical musings always tend to make sense of mutually exclusive realities. For example; why do I exist? In this case, I’m comparing the idea of the universe to that of my puny self, and I’m trying to no avail to merge the two perspectives together (this creates a ‘gap’). Another example is; comparing the event of the big bang to that of a cup of coffee on a table. In the chronological sense, there can be no cup of coffee without the big bang, but in the cultural sense, these two perspectives don’t relate. This is the reason why we are ‘cultural’ beings, our consciousness is full of gaps.