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1 What is the goal of vision, and does it need one?
The problem of the teleological approach is that it assumes that which still is not and cannot be known: clear vision. How can the brain have as goal the elimination of obstacles to clear vision, through, among other, all kinds of ocular movements, if clear vision is itself the result of these movements? As we shall see, many visual phenomena has been approached under this naive perspective, with many complex theories as a result.
If, like I claim, clear vision can never be the goal of the visual system, but only its effect, tha ... (read more)

In a recent article “From Sexuality to Eroticism: The Making of the Human Mind” http://www.scirp.org/journal/AA/ I describe a new scenario for human evolution. Besides the well known topics of upright gait and explorative curiosity I dwell on the realm of erotic life. I do this in accordance with Owen Lovejoy’s pair-bonding hypothesis of human origins. In consequence of their upright gait early humans practiced frontal eye-to-eye copulation. In the beginning this was merely random and took place in the horde. But some females may have felt better with a specific male and thus looked for intimate relations with him. Here begins a sort of “emotional selection”, different from mere sexual selection for good genes. Through long-term bonds erotic feelings are intensified and extended onto higher-order emotions such as hope and jealousy. This scenario is confirmed by the fact that the development of the large brain of humans seems to be more in relation to emotional development than to techn ... (read more)

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1 Turing and the Myth of Universality

There is a strong, not to say absolute belief in the consistency of Turing's thesis, which can be, informally, expressed as such: what a computer can do, any other computer can.

Let us start with the simplest expression of all:

1) 0+1=1

It will be obvious to anyone that any computer worth its silicone, or any other material substrate, will be able to compute (1).

What does that say about universal computing?

Well, that's just it, really. It does not say anything at all. All it shows is that, once the problem has been solved, or at least, put ... (read more)

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1 Hearing

George: I hate ears!
me: You sound just like Hate-Smurf. You did not mind the semi-circular canals, so why hate ears?
George: I don't mind the canals, in fact I love them. They're really fun. Any time you move your head I get to whoosh from one pool to the other!
me: And riding the basilar membrane, that's not fun? That's just like a trampoline, isn't it?
George: Yeah, I guess it is. Or at least it would be, if I could play the drums instead of having them bellowing in my head!
me: I don't understand.
George: Of course you don't. You're not supposed to. It's a h ... (read more)

(a) The arguments for very negative economic effects from Brexit seem to assume that Brexit will leave the EU perfectly intact. It can then punish us with its economic power! But the assumption is very heavy. At least 4 EU member states fear that Brexit will lead to referendums in their own countries: France, Austria, Netherlands and Denmark.

(b) David Cameron repeatedly tells us that according to 9 out of 10 economists, Brexit would be bad for the UK. But the principle “Just go with the vast majority of economic experts on what the economic consequences are” is questionable. What about the 1 out of 10? Who are they? Today I found a professor at Cardiff Business School, a professor of economics at Durham University, and a professor of pensions at Cass Business School. Also Joseph Stiglitz, one of the greatest li ... (read more)

In a recent article “From Sexuality to Eroticism: The Making of The Human Mind”  http://www.scirp.org/journal/AA/  I have tried to describe and to explain the uniqueness of human consciousness in the light of our unusual erotic experience. Eroticism is difficult to define as it is close to sexuality and at the same time transforming it into spiritual issues. Unfortunately, my Eroticism-hypothesis is often identified with Freud’s pansexual position. Instead, I am aware of the fact that sexual exploits take only a small part in human life-history. Nevertheless I am pleading for a structural or formal analogy between the erotic and the function of human consciousness. Both show a curious ambiguity in the experience of the outer and the inner world, combining reality and appearance. The interference of physical experience and emotional imagination distances the human mind from mere animal awareness---a difference that is not merely gradual but qualitative.

Evolutionary biologists do not like ... (read more)

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