Reed:
>>Well, I can't speak for other people's experience. To be honest
>>I'm not sure exactly what Richard meant when he wrote about
>>"Level 3"...I can only tell you what I understand it to mean.
>>
>>I don't experience life serially.
Robin:
>But I'm not talking about metaphor or meaning. I could not
>agree more strongly that meanings run in parallel, that one
>event can have any number of them. But we were talking about
>"experience", weren't we?
Yes, exactly. I understand what I am saying is disconcerting but you get it...you understand what I mean, even if you don't believe it.
>For me, there's experience, and then there's the interpretation of it.
That would be a Cartesian duality:
Experience : Body
Interpretation : Mind
Amazing how many words it takes sometimes...I remember having breakfast at Henrietta's Table with Richard, among one of the many things I remember (he's the kind of guy who you remember) was a comment I made about how many times you have to say something...again and again...
"Oh yes, it's amazing how many times you have to say it."
And he gave me this look, this piercing look [do you get it?] He was looking at me because he suspected I didn't get it. We were talking about other people, and we were talking about ourselves...and he suspected that HE didn't get it.
It was a moment out of time. My fork hovered over my hashbrowns and the bittersweet orange juice aftertaste lingered on my tounge.
And we laughed.
I suppose, in the end, we did get it.
Meaning is the past given life in the future.
>There can be multiple interpretations, but there can be
>only one stream of consciousness. To me that seems
>very fundamental
[break]
Stop there and LOOK AT WHAT YOU HAVE SAID. Fundamental? What is *REALLY* fundamental?
Not "very" fundamental...that's like "very" pregnant. Something is or is not fundamental: you choose.
>Two or more different streams of consciousness would
>have to belong to that number of different people.
Evidence? Because I speak with one voice does not mean I am of one mind. On the other hand...
>It is often speculated that in the
>"split brain" condition, each hemisphere may have its own
>stream, but that's generally viewed as a very strange
>situation, like two people inhabiting one skull.
It is only strange from a certian point of view.
>>It's not easy to balance the streams of consciousness, expecially
>>where they are dissonant.
>
>You seem to view "metaphor/meaning" and "stream of consciousness"
>as practically synonymous, which I really don't understand. Can
>you explain?
Why? You said it perfectly.
Reed
Reed Konsler konsler@ascat.harvard.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------