"Things"

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Things "Out There"

 3

Things in the Brain

Things in Everybody Else's Brain

The Strangeness of Things - Materialism on Its Head

Category 2 things described in more detail

Footnotes  [Which are becoming as extensive as the main text of this page ]

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Things "Out There".

Firstly, things - objects if you like - in the environment. These include things we can touch, taste, see, hear, feel, and otherwise perceive like stones, fruits, flowers, boots and so on. They also include things we cannot perceive immediately through our senses such as atoms, electrons, quarks, etc and the planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

 ...

The immediately perceivable objects are so because our organs of perception are made in the ways necessary to perceive them. [We tend to see things and touch them but dogs rely more on smelling and hearing. North American star-nosed moles on the other hand 'see' by touching with their noses! Scientific American July 2002 p38.] Things perceived in this way are taken as really existing because they affect us in a tangible and consistent manner. To put it another way: our bodies are built as if these things really do exist and we survive because of it! We normally take such things to exist independently of ourselves and I think that most of us will agree that this is quite reasonable. It is naive however to think that perception as such is a passive process. On the contrary it constitutes creative action within the brain.

Other things like atoms, electrons, quarks, molecules, germs and invisible planets are also taken to exist independently of ourselves and this also is reasonable. However they can only be "perceived" by the mind in terms of appropriate theory and with the aid of elaborate equipment.

For the purposes of keeping everything clear , I call things in this sense, "category 1 things". It is a clumsy phrase; does anybody have a better suggestion?.

Things in the Brain

Secondly, I am calling the recurring patterns of interaction amongst large numbers of brain cells (that is networks), which are the basis of thoughts and memories, "things" also.

By this I mean to emphasise that thoughts and memories are real things. They really exist: once formed they resist the tendency of the rest of the universe to dissolve them. Just because the amount of energy involved in the various interactions is incredibly small is no reason to dismiss them as unimportant or somehow nonexistent. In fact it seems to be the case that the human being is designed in just such a way that the minute energy transactions involved amongst neurons in the brain can and do control the gross physical movements of the body. This occurs through a chain or hierarchy of command in the nervous system which interprets, amplifies and transmits messages out from the centre to the muscles which by appropriate movements manifest actions in the external physical and social worlds.

We do not need here to go into the precise nitty-gritty of exactly how all this takes place, but a brief sketch can be provided if anybody is interested.

It is important to realise the scope of this. Thoughts are associated and interact through chains of logical cause and effect. They are the results of information (= patterns of environmental energy variation) received from the external world interacting with information that is already there (Here, as elsewhere, I am using the word information not in the restricted, engineering sense of "that which reduces uncertainty", but rather to mean: "anything which refers to [or can represent] something other than itself" or "that aspect of any thing or process which can represent something other than the thing itself". This usually means salient features of structure.) Their power and purpose lies in making sense of the external world and facilitating control over it. This is achieved through them being organised and cross referenced in terms of the relationships perceived (or believed) between the things of the external world which they represent. The most basic level of thoughts and memories are real things as just explained. So also are the higher levels of integration and interrelationship because they are embodied in patterns of weighted interconnection ("singularities") which make the neural networks and are manifested as recurrent patterns of higher level interaction within the brain.

These singularities and their patterns of interaction can endure in the individual brain for as long as the body has breath. They are what I call:
"category two things". Constructs, defined in Chapter One as "sets of rules or procedures for dealing with particular things in the world", are just such things of Category Two.

Things in Everybody Else's Brain

Thirdly, I refer to the aggregate of all the occurrences of a particular construct in the human population as a thing also. What I mean is that all the "copies" of a particular construct which exist in the minds of people, can be taken together as constituting a thing which really exists in the world. The analogy with a biological species or virus should be clear as should also the analogy with an edition of some particular computer operating system, software package or virus.

A particularly good example is provided by our constructs of fire and its myriad uses and dangers. The basic construct is, I believe, widespread in every community all over the world. In any particular community the uses to which fire is put and the way it is produced will depend on factors such as climate, available fuels, economic situation and level of understanding (that is, theory) of what fire is. For any individual within a community, the same factors could be analysed.

The point is that the theory of fire making came into existence some tens of thousands of years ago and has been evolving ever since into ever more powerful forms [8]. This evolution has come about through individuals putting into practice what they learned from others and occasionally going beyond it in accidents or moments of inspiration. Thus it is that fire came to be used for warmth, illumination, defence against predators at night, cooking, wood-bending and hardening, driving game, pot firing, metal smelting, glass making, warfare, and, most recently, the powering of the machinery of the industrial revolution.

As a little reflection will show, no single person on this planet knows all the theory and practice of fire making and use because:
a. There is so much of it; and
b. Nobody needs to know it all. (If you are tempted to think that perhaps you do know all the theory and practice, it might be worth meditating on how well you can make and use a fire-drill, or why most fire-walkers do not get burned, or how to produce uniform glazes, to order, on ceramic ware.) The aggregate of all the theory of fire making as exists world wide, stored away in minds and memories, can be considered as a thing in itself. The human race by and large depends on it for survival. Without it most of us just could not be here!

Fire making theory is a particularly good example because it is so very wide spread, but all other constructs are of this nature also, even if confined to a small population or community. Constructs have what we might call a distributed existence in the form of many, not always identical, copies held in the minds of a group or population. The particular persons who are possessors of the knowledge in question may all live close together or may be spread out thinly amongst the rest of the population who do not share it.

As such, constructs can be seen to have an objective existence independent of any particular individual. It is these objectively existing constructs which I am calling
"Category Three Things".

The Strangeness of Things - Materialism on Its Head

We can now summarise these ways of using the word thing and make some interesting observations.

a Category One things:
Are "real" things out there in the "real world".

b Category Two things:
Are "real" things also: Patterns of connection, weighting and interaction in a person's brain which correspond or "stand for" things in the outside world.

c Category Three things:
Are "real" things also; each one is the collection of all the copies of a particular category two thing.

d Some category two things:
Do not correspond to any category one things. This is another way of saying that the human brain/mind can imagine "things" which do not exist in the "real world".

The negative side of this point d is one of the more unfortunate aspects of life on Earth and the cause of much foolishness and many mishaps. (Delusions, devils, "master races", paranoia, pink elephants, and "UFO"s come to mind.) The positive side of it is the basis of art, invention, play and science. For example art may be considered to be the process of bringing into existence category one objects (or processes) which hitherto existed only in the mind of the artist. When looked at this way, the arts, sciences and much of what is called "economic" activity, can be seen in terms of what they have in common: the creation of value through the bringing into existence, in public space, of things and processes which previously existed only as category two objects [1]. This will be discussed elsewhere.

e Some other category two things: -
Whilst not corresponding to any obvious category one thing, derive their power from the category three things of which they are a part. An example of this is the days of the week (briefly discussed in Culture and Constructs).

Take Monday for example. As a construct it is one of a set of seven and really seems very simple. Yet look at what immense power it has! Monday has the power to trigger huge numbers of people into getting out of bed and going to work. It also triggers large numbers of people into making children go to school, which is no mean feat! Yet what and where is Monday? We know when it is or should be because we have each learned the sequence of days of the week. This personal knowledge is a category two thing but confirmation of the objective fact of it being Monday comes about through our perception of everybody else using "Monday" as the current name for now. Clocks and calendars function as aids to memory it is true but the reality of Monday is experienced in the actions of all of us and arises from the theory (days of the week etc,) coded in our heads. From this example we can see that the category two thing called Monday in my head corresponds to the category three thing of which it is a part and corresponds only to that category three thing. [2]

Obviously "Monday" and the rest of the time naming system does not exist in isolation from the rest of our culture but rather co-exists with the thousands of other category two and three things which give structure to our human world, eg distance, height, weight, volume, cost (money)[9], social class, ethnicity and so forth. [3]

Category 2 things described in more detail

The main features are as follows.

1. Memories and thoughts involve recurring patterns of interaction amongst groups of neurons (nerve cells) in the brain.

2. These recurring patterns can exist because neuron groups [4] are interconnected in ways which allow patterns of impulses to be sent around and around in circles. This means the logical pathway followed by the patterns of impulses is circular [involving what engineers call feedback and feedforward] even though the actual physical pathway of the impulse patterns will be anything but circular. The set of neurons involved in each such recurring pattern of interaction is normally called a network, cell assembly or repertoire.

3. These recurring patterns are stored because the neurons involved adapt themselves - to some extent at the synapses (the sites where they connect with others) and to some extent also within the body (that is the internal workings) of the cells. They do this in such a way that with each occurrence of the pattern the next occurrence becomes easier or more probable.

4. The number of neurons involved in each such pattern of interactions is very large and the particular network of neurons involved may be spread throughout the brain. Furthermore, because of the complex way in which neurons are interconnected - with any one cell being connected to many others and a significant proportion being connected to literally thousands of others - any particular cell may be involved in many different interaction patterns.

5. It is the fact of neurons being involved in different interaction patterns which allows mental associations and thinking to occur: When a particular pattern of interactions is occurring, related patterns may be triggered off following stimulation of neurons which are involved in more than one network. Furthermore, if these secondary networks (or tertiary, etc,) are reinforced, due to being useful or appropriate, then they in turn and their causal link with the original network are made more probable to occur in future. Thus the brain develops a predisposition towards them and has created within itself yet more "long term memories". [5]

6. A long term memory can be considered as simply the predisposition of the brain to fall into some particular recurring pattern of interaction as outlined above. Remembering is simply the activation of the particular neuronal networks in question. Awareness is what it is like to be the model of self-in-the-world as the particular network/pattern of impulses is occurring in combination with, and causal interaction with, the model of self. Short term memory is the process of linking the representation of something or other (ie a pattern of impulses) into the current representation of self-in-the-world (which is of course, also a particular pattern of impulses). As such it should be plain that short and long term memory are not different places in the brain but rather, different aspects of the general functioning of human or other mammalian brains. [6]

This short digression into the general theory of how memories and thoughts are made and stored provides an understanding of how they really are things. They subsist in the real world.[7] Another way of saying this is: Everything which exists has to be somewhere and thoughts and memories are [that is they really exist!] in the brain in the form of patterns of interconnection and interaction of groups ("networks", "repertoires" or "singularities") of neurons. Furthermore, just as genes are the foundation of all biological life and evolution, so these things called thoughts and memories are the foundations of human mental life and cultural evolution.

  This leads on to the enormously useful concepts of Memes and "replicator power"

Footnotes  

1

I am assuming here that the only difference between a "thing" and a "process" is duration. In other words it is an arbitrary linguistic convention. [NB: Alt+left arrow will take you back]

2

You may wish to speculate on whether we should also include those parts of computer programs which cause particular things to happen on Monday in the category three thing called "Monday" [NB: Alt+left arrow will take you back]

3

We could become side tracked into a scholastic argument about which category two things do correspond to detectable things of category one and which do not (For example "God", "evolution", and "entropy", "law and order" etcetera). Our purpose here, however, is to find a practical system and method for understanding oneself in the world and discerning real things of value amongst all the hype and humbug.
One consequence of this way of looking at the world is that it shows the lie in the assertions of Margaret Thatcher and others that "..there is no such real thing as society, there are only individuals..". "Society" is a set of constructs which represent relationships of kin, friendship, association and power. These constructs most certainly do exist. So the question is not whether a society exists as such because plainly it does, but whose description of it is controlling the thoughts, actions and well being of others! Whom does it serve?
[NB: Alt+left arrow will take you back]

4

"Neuron groups" here refers to "Mini-columns" as elucidated by Vernon B. Mountcastle in his essay - "An Organising Principle for Cerebral Function: The Unit Module and Distributed System" thus:
"The basic unit of operation in the neocortex is a vertically arranged group of cells heavily interconnected in the vertical axis running across the cortical layers and sparsely connected horizontally". See Edelman, G.M. and Mountcastle, V.B. The Mindful Brain, MIT Press, 1982. [NB: Alt+left arrow will take you back]

5

"The fundamental capacity of the brain of higher vertebrates, particularly humans, involves the construction of "representations", either as a result of interaction with the environment or spontaneously by an internal focusing of attention.......these representations are built up by the a activation of neurons, whose dispersion throughout multiple cortical areas determines the figurative or abstract character of the representation. A mental object is by definition a transient event. It is dynamic and fleeting, lasting only fractions of a second. The singularities of the neurons that form it , however, are much more stable; they are built up during development by mechanisms involving internal genetic expressions and regulations stemming from a chain of reciprocal interactions with the environment. Thus the epigenetic component of neuronal singularities itself constitute a "representation", written in the "wiring" between nerve cells. This imprint of the physical and socio-cultural world remains stable for many years, even throughout the life of an individual. It is renewed from one generation to another, and this relearning imposes an important temporal constraint on the evolution of individual behaviour patterns and of course, the social milieu." Changeux, J.P.: Neuronal Man (The Biology of Mind) Pantheon Books' New York, 1985 [NB: Alt+left arrow will take you back]

6

Edelman, G.: The Remembered Present: A Biological Theory of Consciousness, Basic Books, 1990, NY
[NB: Alt+left arrow will take you back]

7

I know of at least two objections likely to be raised immediately here:
1 "It is wrong to say that thoughts are in the brain!"; and
2 "It is wrong to encourage people to think that memories are recordings of past events."

My responses:
To number 1 - It is a question of use of language in what is, for most people, an unexamined area of experience and belief; it depends what you mean. The interactions amongst neural networks most definitely are in and of the brain. The subjective awareness is in and of the universe.
To number 2 - I agree, memories, like everything else, are always here and now. The process of remembering may, perhaps, be best understood as imagination. Certainly the process is creative and involves projection of constructs of time and place.
[NB: Alt+left arrow will take you back]

8

I heard some time ago, on the [Australian] ABC Science Show, a new theory that fire making may in fact have a much longer history in our species - going back a million or more years - and it may have been the use of fire for cooking which precipitated radical changes in both the physiology of our ancestors [diminishing size of teeth and gut, and of males relative to females] and their instinctive behaviour [the advent of serial monogamy in which males give aid and protection to the mother of their offspring in exchange for [more or less] exclusive and frequent sexual intercourse].
So what if it is not politically correct! Does it fit the facts?

9

When economists say things like "We don't really know what money is.." they reveal a lamentable lack of understanding of the true nature and value of human culture.[NB: Alt+left arrow will take you back]

10

I offered the following to the JCS-online email forum in the thread "What does physical mean?" which was started by Peter Lloyd in response to some assertion I made. I characterise Peter's view of things as "Cartesian" although I am not sure that Peter agrees with this.

In relation to Peter's assertion that we cannot "experience" atoms and so forth -

• I believe that Tasmania exists. It is something "physical" if you like. I have never been there and probably never will, unless I win a lottery, yet every once in a while the phone rings at home and it turns out to be one or other of the two of my sisters who both claim to live there. According to Peter's theory, I have no right to believe that Tasmania really exists, yet for me the only correct inference worth considering is that it does so exist.
• It is possible to introduce various artificial aids and experimental devices between a human and her environment such that the patterns of environmental energy are conveyed to the relevant sensory cells in a manner different from how it would be without them. Spectacles are a simple example: my wife relates how as a child she only discovered for herself that stars were bright dots in the sky when she got her first pair of specks. People had told her about them and those people's description had been the correct one, she just didn't know it yet. Another example - a great Australian contribution to the world I believe - is the cochleal implant. This transduction device reconnects the drum and bones of the inner ear with neurons going into the brain so that the subject hears again. Does Peter Lloyd deny their hearing is real because mediated by metal, silicon and plastic as well as bones, neurons and so forth?

The last point extends naturally to the vast number of tools and aids to investigation of the world which science and engineering now make available. Instruments - now including the humble PC mouse pointer - are being designed to give vibrations and impulses as indications of the properties of atomic and molecular scale objects, as well much larger things, being measured by remote mechanisms. Peter Lloyd seems to be denying that this can be classed as "perception". My understanding however is that habitual users of such devices easily reach a threshold of familiarity after which the device becomes as if an extension of their bodies: they"feel" the shape and resistance of the nanometre sized objects. Why is this so hard to accept? This process of perception mediated by transducers, amplifiers and computer chips is very sophisticated but logically is in the same category as using a stick to find one's way around a darkened room, or the measurement process used by "nudge" parkers finding out if their car is going to fit into a parking bay .

Peter's view seems to me to be naive and deeply misleading. Fortunately or not, the distinction between our ways of understanding the world seems not to be of great consequence for most practical purposes. I suspect however that the project of humanising ourselves and our planet so that the billions of us who now live here may live in peace and with reasonable prospects of survival, does require that we often revisit the questions around what we really are and what is the true nature of our experience. What we believe about ourselves can critically affect the choices we make and the way we treat each other.
[NB: Alt+left arrow will take you back]

 11  

I think the self assertive and self transcending tendencies of things can be seen as the outworking respectively of fermions and bosons, the elementary particles which make up the material world., at each respective magnitude scale. The following are quotes from Uncovering Supersymmetry, Scientific American July 2002

p56 In quantum physics, all particles and fields are divided into two extremely dissimilar types: fermions and bosons. Fermions include the electrons, protons and neutrons that make up matter. Bosons include photons [responsible for electromagnetism] and gluons [which bind quarks together.]

p55 Fermions are inherently the individualists and loners of the quantum particle world: no two fermions ever occupy the same quantum state. Their aversion to close company is strong enough to hold up a neutron star against collapse even when the crushing weight of gravity has overcome every other force of nature. Bosons, in contrast, are convivial copycats and readily gather in identical states. Every boson in a particular state encourages more of its species to emulate it. [Mark's addition: This tendency is what underlies the process in which photons of light form up into a coherent, one directional stream in a laser beam.] Back 

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