Thought Beyond Information

Thought Beyond Information

The key idea behind the representation of thought is to represent one and only one thing directly, but that one thing then represents everything else indirectly. The one thing that represents everything indirectly is abstraction. This provides a direct representation of indirect representation. It directly represents everything indirectly. With indirect representations like logic, set theory and mathematics, we attempt to represent everything represented by direct representation indirectly. Logic, set theory and mathematics do just the opposite of what the brain does. Instead of directly representing everything indirectly, logic, set theory and mathematics attempt to indirectly represent everything, directly. It is impossible to indirectly represent everything directly because the indirect representation of everything is too complex and it is inconsistent or incomplete or both. Doing things the other way around, the representation only has to represent one thing completely and consistently. If there is only one thing to represent in a domain of discourse, the only way for it to be incomplete or inconsistent is for it to be incomplete or inconsistent relative to itself. It is impossible for a direct representation based on relative relational encoding to be inconsistent or incomplete[1]. This then allows us to avoid the adverse consequences of Gödel’s incompleteness theorems.

Fortunately, it is possible to represent one thing completely and consistently using information - provided the complexity of that one thing is not too great. Therefore, we can use a computer to indirectly represent the direct representation of one thing, and then use that one simulated direct thing to ‘directly’ represent everything else indirectly. We use the same strategy used by nature in the brain, but it is a little less efficient due to the additional level of indirection. Nevertheless, it still provides the means to represent everything indirectly completely and consistently. It also still has all the same benefits in terms of the geometric combinatoric reduction in complexity and storage size. It allows us to create sentient computers that represent and understand the meaning of information from the first person direct perspective in context.

[1] In a relative relational encoding, the representation and the encoding are fully encapsulated. The encoding itself is a function of that which it encodes. The representation of existence is defined relative to symmetric differences in nonexistence. Nonexistence is the only thing ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ the universe that has no dependencies.