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Topic: A new theory of pain (Read 4562 times)
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Zanthius
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Posts: 941
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I don't know a lot about perceptual control theory, but I think in general it is very wrong to assume that the human brain is a completely free machine learning algorithm. Well, yes. Good thing that's not what was asserted...
I was thinking specifically about this:
And I start to get very skeptical when Powers moves to higher-tier control systems. His sixth tier is “relationships”, seventh is “programs”, eighth is “principles”, and ninth is “systems”. Although these tiers receive just as many pages as the earlier ones, they start sounding very abstract and they correlate a lot less well with anatomy. I understand the urge to postulate them – if you’ve already decided that the fundamental unit of the brain is the control system, why not try to explain things with control systems all the way up? – but it becomes kind of a stretch. It’s easy to see what it means to control the distance between me and the car in front of me; it’s harder to see what it means to control for “communism” or “honesty” or things like that.
In order for it to be possible for a learned ideology like communism to have ultimate control of a human body, it seems like the brain would need to be a more or less free machine learning algorithm. Since the human brain isn't a completely free machine learning algorithm, it seems highly unlikely that it is possible for a learned ideology like communism to be able to have ultimate control of a human body.
The brain is probably organized more or less like Powers assume, but learned ideologies can only have very limited control of a human being. It might seem like a Muslim suicide bomber is completely controlled by Islam, since it seems like he is willing to die for his ideology. However, he is probably killing himself mostly because of social pressure, rather than because of Islam. Social pressure seems to be a much more powerful motivator than ideologies.
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« Last Edit: May 05, 2018, 08:06:10 pm by Zanthius »
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Death 999
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We did. You did. Yes we can. No.
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I think that's a bit of a stretch, especially since the point of the quote is that the model appears to break down at that point.
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