Thanks for writing! This is far clearer than most explanations and has some helpful analogies.
Thanks!
However, one place where you could have been more precise is the discussions around self-reference.
Can you be more… precise about which part of the text that you are thinking of? :-)
Additionally, multiagents systems don’t necessarily imply no self—it may be that we only identify with one of the agents.
That’s true: in principle a multiagent system could still have a central “self” agent. But as I noted, the argument (at least as I interpret it) isn’t that “absolutely nothing like some kind of a self can be found”, it’s rather that “the mind doesn’t work like our intuitive concept of the self would suggest”. (More on this in a future post.)
Hmm, the quote that demonstrates this issue the most is: “But there is a hidden problem with the observer technique, which becomes obvious once you think about it. Who is the observer? Who is this person who is behind the binoculars, watching your experience from the outside?”, but that is of course a quote rather than a peice of text you wrote yourself.
I also feel it applies somewhat to the discussion of the sense of looking out at the world from behind your eye. I think you’re implying that the fact that we can observe this system implies that it is a seperate sub-agent from the system observing this sense, but reflective programs seem to demonstrate that this isn’t necessarily the case.
Thanks!
Can you be more… precise about which part of the text that you are thinking of? :-)
That’s true: in principle a multiagent system could still have a central “self” agent. But as I noted, the argument (at least as I interpret it) isn’t that “absolutely nothing like some kind of a self can be found”, it’s rather that “the mind doesn’t work like our intuitive concept of the self would suggest”. (More on this in a future post.)
Hmm, the quote that demonstrates this issue the most is: “But there is a hidden problem with the observer technique, which becomes obvious once you think about it. Who is the observer? Who is this person who is behind the binoculars, watching your experience from the outside?”, but that is of course a quote rather than a peice of text you wrote yourself.
I also feel it applies somewhat to the discussion of the sense of looking out at the world from behind your eye. I think you’re implying that the fact that we can observe this system implies that it is a seperate sub-agent from the system observing this sense, but reflective programs seem to demonstrate that this isn’t necessarily the case.