By “sensing” I was referring to the end result of all those nerves firing and processes processing when awareness meets the result of all that stuff. I suppose I could have more accurately stated that awareness is a part of the territory as awareness arises directly from some part of your circuitry. Everything about the cat in your example may happen in the brain or not and so you can’t really be sure that there’s an underlying reality behind it, but awareness itself is a direct consequence of the configuration of the processing equipment.
It’s real, but the thing that’s being experienced isn’t the real thing. The cat quale is a real process, but it’s not a real cat (probably). The part of processing the quale that is the awareness (not the object of awareness) is itself the real awareness and holds the distinction of actually being in the territory rather than in the map.
By “sensing” I was referring to the end result of all those nerves firing and processes processing when awareness meets the result of all that stuff. I suppose I could have more accurately stated that awareness is a part of the territory as awareness arises directly from some part of your circuitry. Everything about the cat in your example may happen in the brain or not and so you can’t really be sure that there’s an underlying reality behind it, but awareness itself is a direct consequence of the configuration of the processing equipment.
So what is a map and not the territory in your example? The cat identification process? The “I see a cat” quale? I am confused.
Yes, the cat quale is map.
I’d argue that it is as real as any other brain process.
It’s real, but the thing that’s being experienced isn’t the real thing. The cat quale is a real process, but it’s not a real cat (probably). The part of processing the quale that is the awareness (not the object of awareness) is itself the real awareness and holds the distinction of actually being in the territory rather than in the map.