Wednesday 3 June 2009

3. Obligatory features of basic forms.


The apparently obligatory features of the basic brain forms are their duality (since there are both left and right cycles), their circularity (on each side and also between the sides), their consistent self-reference (in that all three kinds of cycles 'turn back' on themselves) and their incompleteness (in that all three kinds of cycles appear endless). As we'll see, modern 'molecular clocks' indicate that these features seem to have been part of our animal brain heritage for about 1000 million years.

The arguably obligatory features of the basic mind forms are their perceived central problems of duality, circularity, self-reference and incompleteness, as epitomised for example in the famous Liar Paradox (of which more later). As we'll see, these features seem to have been part of our mind heritage for at least 42,000 years and the perceived central problems have been recognised for at least 2,600 years.

Future posts will summarise the evidence and argument for the brain forms (beginning with some introductory concepts), then for the mind forms and then for the surprising implications of the theory.

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