Between the Will and the World

August 16th, 2006 Fred McVittie

We have the subjective experience of being in control of our decisions and, to a certain extent, our destiny.This is manifest in the the concept of ´free will´and the responsibility which accompanies it. However, whilst the theories of science which describe the physical world are undoubtedly ‘real’, they describe a reality beyond the range of human sense and thus beyond embodied cognition. The will operates only within a framework specified by the limitations of the sensorium. In effect, this sensorium, the physically apprehensible, phenomenal world, is an imprecise interface between the will and the world. Our hands are on this phenomenal interface, not on the actual controls of the world.

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God’s Hand in Flatland

August 18th, 2007 Fred McVittie

A 3D object, say a sphere, in a 2d space would appear as act of magic, appearing and disappearing as if from nowhere and apparently contravening all the known laws of 2 dimensional physics. A more complex object, a human hand for example, would appear not as a single object but as a number of separate, disconnected entities, each finger appearing alone (in cross-section as a rough circle). However, there would be interaction, communication, and apparent communion between these entities. The appearance would be of distinct, individual, intentional interacting entities.

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