[-empyre-] the heart of the matter

[Nancy Paterson <Nancy.Paterson@senecac.on.ca>]

Good morning all,
I'm working right now on a research project concerned with synesthesia, hence my interest in the topic. 
I thought I'd start the discussion by posting a couple of ideas which have come to mind recently.

Computationalism, the view that mental states are computational states—solely abstract and syntactic, neglects real-time, real-world constraints such as embodiment, interaction, physics, and semantics. Computationalism will always be in the process of revision because it is technology based and therefore always changes. The concepts 'red’, the ‘sound of a bell’ are abstractions - essentially information. They are not tied to exact neurons, just as a variable in a program need not be tied to a particular physical memory location (virtual addressing, virtual memory, cache, CPU registers etc). Information exists, but has no physical presence in itself. Information can only exist in a practical sense, however, if there is (at least) one representation of it in (at least) one medium physically. But that representation does not need any independent labelling with meaning - it can simply be an abstract symbol, whose meaning is entirely defined by its functional consequences.
Bill and jackbackrack will have a different perspective, perhaps, coming from the fields of AI and robotics; what do you think?
Nancy
BTW, if you want more info about my project, check out: www.vacuumwoman.com/multi