Under anesthesia, where do our minds go?

Re:Under anesthesia, where do our minds go? by bowsamic on Wednesday July 27, 2022 @04:59AM (#32248309)

I think you are getting confused between the word theory and the word model, which are often interchanged in physics unfortunately.

A "model" is predictive, but a "theory" explains. A theory of consciousness has no need to predict the future. A model of consciousness would. This word has just been mixed up a lot in science. The reason is that theories in physics are almost always also predictive models. However, this is not usually explicitly the case in philosophy.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Under anesthesia, where do our minds go? by kubanczyk on Wednesday July 27, 2022 @05:31PM (#32257278)

> A theory of consciousness has no need to predict the future.

If you don't feel the need to predict anything about consciousness in the real world, I'd say I won't be interested in such a "theory" (or "explanation"). But glad to see your take on the definition of the term.

Going back to Occam's razor, if you only apply it to get the simplest map (in some sense of "the simplest"), and abandon verifying whether it predicts the territory or not, it seems a blank map always wins.

[ Parent | on HN ]