clankfan

Sensory input is decoupled from your concious experience of the world. Imagine the mind being made of a number of parts. One part is conciousness itself. Another part is the model of the world, your memory. Another part is your sensory interface where your sensory organs interface with the other parts of your mind. The sensory part of the mind does two things: it creates memories and it guides conciousness. Let me elaborate. When you see something, you either recognize it as something you know or you create a memory of it to some degree.

The key point here is that your conciosness deals only in memories, the models of things. When you see something you know, the model of that thing is applied to your conciousness. This is why I say that the sensory part of the brain guides conciousness. When you are awake, the models or memories that are being applied to your conciousness are being picked out by your sensory part. When you conjur a memory, you are yourself selecting a model or memory to apply to your con...