Ⅹ Observing the Objectivity of Consciousness from the Cylinder Brain
来源:COLLECTIONS OF TAIJIEVOLUTIONISM | 作者:YONG DUAN | 发布时间: 2021-11-06 | 4293 次浏览 | 分享到:

The “Cylinder Brain” thought experiment is this: Imagine a crazy scientist taking your brain out of your body and placing it in a life-sustaining fluid, and then connecting the brain to a computer that has the ability to imitate your life experience. If this is indeed possible, then how do you distinguish whether the world around you is real or analog?

Materialism believes that the objective world exists objectively. People can only objectively understand it, but cannot subjectively assume its appearance. So what does the objective world look like? In the past, people believed that matter was immortal, and later discovered that positive and negative particles could be destroyed together; scientists said that the universe came from a big bang, but some people said that the universe had several big bangs; some people believe that human nature is good, but there are always people who wage war and be passionate about killing people. Quantum mechanics tells us that we cannot track quantum objects in space and time, so quantum objects cannot be fully understood.

So, what exactly is the objective world? Materialist said that it cannot be described accurately yet, and understanding must be continuously developed. This is called forever tomorrow. Chang Baohua said a comic dialogue, I invite you for dinner. Then he reported a lot of dishes. When do we eat? Tomorrow, tomorrow, forever tomorrow!

There will be many statements about the world in the future. The objective world that materialism can now present to us is nothing more than the current subjective understanding. The real objective world cannot be fully understood by people. If you want to understand the real objective world, you must wait for the forever tomorrow. Should we wait for tomorrow or live in the present?

The benefit of Materialism lies in the fact that if people believe that the world exists objectively then they can explain the source of the alienation of experience (why experience is not what we want), and they will adopt a rigorous attitude, actively explore, and seek greater benefits for mankind. Therefore, the belief in materialism comes from human interests. Without human interests, materialism has no meaning. If another belief can produce the same benefits, then materialism has no advantage. The ideological experiment of the brain in the cylinder seems to be a devastating criticism of science. In fact, it just  once again validate the subjective idealism theory of Descartes and Hume from a special perspective. And this is truly devastating of materialism by subjective idealism. Starting from materialism, it inevitably infers the conclusion of subjective idealism.

On the other hand, starting from subjective idealism, we will infer the conclusion of materialism. Subjective idealism does not recognize the existence of the objective world as transcendental and believes that it must proceed from consciousness. However, from the perspective of consciousness it is also possible to confirm the objecti- vity of feelings. Objectivity comes from the need for logical unity between consciousness. When you hit the wall, if you do not admit the feeling and say,“I just did not hit the wall”, then you continue to move forward and you will get the feeling of hitting the wall again. Concepts and emotions can be changed at will, but experience cannot be changed at will because it has a specific relationship with people's interests.

The cylinder brain receives the computer-simulated life experience, which may be considered as real life experience by the brain within a short time, but it will inevitably be doubted after a long time on many reasons. First of all, there is no technology that can completely imitate the real environment. Three-dimensional maps or game animations are clearly different from the facts. Second, even if the simulation of the environment is very realistic, the simulation of human responses cannot be realistic. People have a wealth of ideas. Each person has a different personality. Computers cannot realistically imitate the language and behavior of different people. Third, the real brain can dominate the limbs, move around, write and draw, and produce a variety of products that can change the world. Computers can imitate some behaviors, but they cannot imitate the detailed feelings and results of behavior. The brain in a cylinder feels itself like a disabled person. Fourth, there are always illogical contents of simulation. Virtual scenes can be replaced instantly. They can move from China to the USA, from earth to Mars, or suddenly disappear. This is impossible for real scenes. The real objective world has specific laws that are not based on human will. It is an alienation. Subjective idealism can never erase this objective alienation.

Since both Materialism and Idealism have errors, what should be the correct theory? It should be Dialectical Dualism, which is the dialectical unity of Materialism and Subjective Idealism. Marx's Dialectical Materialism also recognizes the dialectical relationship between substance and consciousness, but it does not recognize that the role of consciousness in materialism is a decisive role, and Marx called it as counter-production, but Marx had never explained clearly what is counter-production. Therefore, Dialectical Materialism is an incomplete theory.

Why can't the monkey king in the Chinese ancient novel Journey to the West jump out of the palm of the Buddha? Because the Buddha has written these words in his palm: the subjective world. Buddhism believes that all Dharma is in the heart. It is not only the monkey king, but all people, no matter where you are sacred, what you think and say is completely your own subjective world. Things outside the subjective world must first become subjective before they affect your decision-making. These are the determinants of consciousness over matter.

We live in the objective world, but also in a subjective world. The world can exist in a probabilistic way. Communication is based on trust. Economic operation is based on credit. Probability, trust and credit are all subjective things. Because we live in a world of subjective predictions, so we always worry about nothing. Because we live in a world with the sorts of things (sorts are the product of subjective abstractions), we always have a partial overview instead of comprehensive understanding. And at the same time, we can often devise strategies to win thousands of miles, and know things that we cannot observe.