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Thoughts About "drivers" For Alex

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Posted by Paul R. Martin on November 20, 2001 01:00:38 UTC

Hi Alex,

I'm the guy who keeps mentioning drivers. I think there is something about consciousness that has not been explained by science, and I have my doubts that it ever will be.

You and I discussed this a long time ago when we talked about driving helicopters. You seemed to quit discussing the subject when it started getting interesting. Instead of following the argument, you went into a loop and just repeated your opening position.

I can't prove the existence of any "driver" nor do I know that such a thing exists. I just suspect that there is, based on what I know and have heard so far.

You claim that the world drives itself and that there is no need for any additional "driver". I agree with you for 99.999999999999% (or so) of the interactions in the universe. But I suspect that there is some "additional" or "outside" influence on the behavior of conscious animals on earth. This is what I mean when I talk about a "driver".

You are talking about a different concept of "driver" than I am. Your concept is what I would call 'unattended operation'.

Your car is 99.999% "driven" by unattended operation as it hurtles down the freeway. Think of all the spark plug firings happening at exactly the right time as you go. Think about all the linkages that come into play to transmit the intermittent forces on the pistons to the rubber against the road. There is no conscious involvement in the operation of any of that. The car "drives itself" just as most of the universe does. Every motion of the car can be explained in minute detail by the laws of mechanics, electromagnetism, and chemistry. But that's not what I am talking about.

When I say "driver" I mean the conscious human that applies occasional, small, forces on one or more controls which influence the behavior of the car in a consciously desired way, i.e. getting it to go from point A to point B. The car cannot "drive itself" from point A to point B.

So when I use the term "driver" referring to an aspect of consciousness, I mean that the "driver" (in the consciousness) is to the human being as the human driver is to the car. Sorry about using the term 'driver' in two different contexts, but I think you can get what I mean.

If you don't think there is such a thing, then my challenge to you is to produce a mathematical formula that will predict the behavior of a human, or a squirrel, or even a car (that is not in the shop or garage) over a period of a week.

Warm regards,

Paul

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