(no subject)
If the mind is a computing system, even if it is also in other ways not a computing system or something "more" than a computing system, then it has evolved various mechanisms to avoid "freezing" or recovering from error and overload. These overloads are happening constantly, on every possible timescale. Sometimes they are absolutely devastating but they also form a big part of the general texture of experience. Sleep is one major macro-corrective which has to do with the redistribution of various chemical constituents of the brain.
The mystical or religious experience is another such corrective. It helps you deal with experiences or ideas which are outside your computational capabilities. Infinity is one such experience or idea. A finite system cannot deal with infinite concepts. God means "does not compute".
We see the universe just fine but obviously an instrument delivers a certain type of data. If you were a seismograph, there would be a whole lot of shaking going on.
That sensation that we often think is the other side of the coin to the mystical experience, that gnawing that says "there is something more than this"--that sensation is dead on, it is not representative of an error. We are people, and we will never understand the infinite universe or our infinite selves or the infinities nested inside of these.
The mystical or religious experience is another such corrective. It helps you deal with experiences or ideas which are outside your computational capabilities. Infinity is one such experience or idea. A finite system cannot deal with infinite concepts. God means "does not compute".
We see the universe just fine but obviously an instrument delivers a certain type of data. If you were a seismograph, there would be a whole lot of shaking going on.
That sensation that we often think is the other side of the coin to the mystical experience, that gnawing that says "there is something more than this"--that sensation is dead on, it is not representative of an error. We are people, and we will never understand the infinite universe or our infinite selves or the infinities nested inside of these.