Our consciousness increases its awareness of the external world as it becomes more ordered by increasing its ability to duplicate the true structure of the universe in the mind’s holoceptual images. The more external structures it can faithfully duplicate and hence recall, the greater the mind’s comprehension of the universe. In other words, the increasing ability to duplicate accurately the structures of nature in the mind, is the same thing as increasing the mind’s understanding of the world. As man’s comprehension of his circumstances increases, so does his own self awareness and he becomes more capable of regarding himself objectively as just another part of a mechanism, rather then the centre of the universe, even to the extent of understanding the phenomenon of his own self consciousness. An increasing consciousness results from a mind capable of increasing its ability to duplicate or comprehend the structure of nature, a mind capable of discerning order and pattern from apparent chaos which then urges the body into executive action to both spread this sense of order to others and thus impose greater stability and more complex structure onto the external world.
Accurate memories can be regarded as truthful holocepts, perfectly duplicating nature, or repetitions of little slices of reality. The ‘self’ or ego of an individual, however personality is described, can be seen to be dominated and formed by the vividness of past memories and the impression they made upon the individual at the time they were first observed. This is because intelligence operates through recalling past observations which might be relevant to current external circumstances, and how they might best be met to extend that individual’s chance of survival. This description of the operation of intelligence is of course at a level much lower than its ultimate purpose, described above as the imposition of order onto the external universe. However, before an intelligence can impose such order, it must first be able to physically survive above the brute beast level of having no time for leisure pursuits above the basics of eating, sleeping and finding adequate shelter. Therefore, these basic ingredients for survival must first be met, before consciousness can be developed.
The ‘self’ can thus be regarded as a jumbled collection of memories, which if repeated enough, become lodged as trigger memory cell patterns (DNA) creating conditioned reflexes, then to become permanently ingrained into the gene pattern in the chromosomes of the body’s cells. The memories in this collection comprising the self will be the more vivid and the more deeply ingrained, the closer they are to reality. In other words, the more accurate the holocepts to nature and the closer to the truth, the greater the resonance and the stability and the value of those memories. However, these accurate memories of great comprehension will be mixed in the mind among memories of less consequence from different times and places in a random morass. The higher the function of intelligence beyond that of ensuring mere survival, the more it will constantly attempt to arrange and combine these holocepts into more ordered and meaningful patterns, so that wider and more accurate representation of nature can be formed in the mind.
Memories might stick in the mind for no particular reason, and which by themselves, appear to have no great significance. Later, further observations might be made, which when considered with the earlier memories, combine to form a significant concept. This constant sorting of recalled holocepts into new combinations which are realised to be significant when they duplicate nature, is a process which results directly from the phenomenon of the resonance of similar structures. The mind detects this resonance perhaps in the same way as a meter can measure increased electrical potential and interprets it as a feeling of well being throughout the whole body. This ability to detect resonance or the ‘truth’ is the mechanism of consciousness, and the urge to sift through myriad of combinations of holocepts can be seen as curiosity, the great driving force behind intellectual progress.
C3.1 The problem of the Homunculus or Mr. X
An explanation has not been attempted for the mechanism of how structures of firing synapses create the this holographic image, the holocept, but as progress is made in the relatively new field of laser science, it does not seem impossible that something along these lines might become apparent. This is of course a large assumption, but the fact I can see an image in my head now of my fingers on a keyboard as I type these words, it seems to me unlikely that that this highly detailed 3D image is not a creation very closely connected with holographic interference patterns. Given the accelerating rate of progress in scientific knowledge, maybe such mechanisms might be made manifest in the not too distant future. What is far more difficult to answer is the nature of the mechanism through which such images are viewed and assimilated as rational thought. An answer here would presumably contribute a substantial element of clarification here to the problem of consciousness. A helpful description of the extent of the problem for me was described as the problem of Mr. X as it was termed by Eddington in book ‘The Nature of the Physical World’. (1929)
“A little reflection will show that the point of contact of mind with the physical universe is not very definite. Mr. X knows a table, but the point of contact with his mind is not in the material of the table. Light waves are propagated from the table to the eye; chemical changes occur in the retina; propagation of some kind occurs in the optic nerves; atomic changes follow in the brain. Just where the final leap into consciousness occurs is not clear. We do not know the last stage of the message in the physical world before it became a sensation in consciousness. Mr. X is one of the recalcitrant: when sound waves impinge on his ear he moves, not in accordance with a mathematical equation involving the physical measure numbers of the waves, but in accordance with the meaning that those sound waves are used to convey. To know what there is about Mr. X which makes him behave in this strange way, we must look not to a physical system of inference, but to that insight beneath the symbols which in out own minds we possess. It is by this insight that we can finally reach as answer to our question. what is Mr. X?”
Briefly, the problem is identifying the mechanism by which we are aware that we exist; by which we are aware of our own thoughts. What is it inside our intelligence that observes and registers the holoceptual image created by the patterns of firing synapses? This is also a major problem in philosophy, which they call, amongst other descriptions, the problem of the homunculus.
To rehearse the intuitive process yet again, consider the mind contemplating some intellectual problem: if enough relevant information has been observed and recorded, if the mind is set in conscious random motion, then as conjectured above, the correct answer should be resolved. This occurs through the true state of structures and events in nature, resonating with the brain’s holoceptual image, when the correct combination of structures in the brain comes up arbitrarily. When this happens, this resonance or interaction between the external world and the structures in the brain, increases the potential for the material particles of the involved structures to convert to radiation energy.
This leads fairly effortlessly to the following postulate: that one purpose of the intelligent animal organism, the whole metabolism and not just the brain, is to recognise and detect this resonance, which represents a lower energy level or more stability and therefore more desirable to nature. This represents a tendency towards a more ordered state of affairs, a negentropic tendency, when it is remembered that the concept of order depends on pattern and duplication. The physical body and brain of an intelligent organism exists to detect pattern, duplication and order, and indeed to exert itself on the external world to bring about increase in the degree of order. This activity is in itself, the operation of self consciousness. Mr. X is not a viewing mechanism of any sort. He does not exist: there is no need for him. Increasing self consciousness is nothing more than an increasing ability to duplicate in holocept form the structure of the external universe. The latter process is also another way of increasing understanding generally.
When an answer to a problem is sought, and then found, its resolution produces not only intellectual pleasure, but also a physical sense of well being, depending on the extent and complexity of the problem. All human beings strive to increase their pleasure or enjoyment in life, so that it could be argued that if the resolution of the truth represents the highest form of pleasure, then the purpose of human intelligence is to detect more and more truth in the universe. In this respect ‘Truth’ means in general terms, the accurate portrayal in holocept form in the mind of the structure of the external universe. In the same way the concept of understanding is no more than a duplicate image formed in the mind in holocept form of the mechanisms of a certain part of the external world that is under consideration, which is accompanied by a sense of pleasure or achievement (potential to release energy) thereby created in that particular organic and intelligent system. It is also possible to define the word ‘love’ as an act of increased understanding, and also to define the notions of good and evil in terms of Duplication Theory, but that is beyond the remit I have set myself on this website.
In section K a number of more recent papers, most drafted from 2020 onwards have been attached below, including one titled ‘Consciousness’ (2021: 10 pages), This is an explanation of a number of aspects of this subject as a combination of the described mechanisms behind the operation of memory and intuition in terms of Duplication theory.