Eliezer,
You keep telling me to read other posts. I don't think you realize that I
have read everything you referenced and still disagree with you. You seem
to assume that if I read your explanation, I would agree.
Mostly, I think this argument boils down to semantics and doesn't mean anything. I was interpreting your replay as being a tape-recorder, and it now appears that you are talking about a data lookup table to provide the answers. I think this is a lot closer to how I think the brain really works.
I should probably try to escape this discussion now. The causal system seems to be the CPU that runs the program. The pattern system seems to be the data stored as look-up tables. Looking at it this way, it seems that both systems are necessary, and neither can function without the other. A CPU can't run without a program file of commands to execute. It can't interact with the world without driver files, i/o files, and firmware programming. It can't do too much without memory or stored data to recall as needed. Likewise, patterns on disk are useless without a program that knows how to access the lookup table, and has the rules of how the table is laid out and how to interpret the data. As such, both system require each other.
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Harvey Newstrom <mailto://newstrom@newstaffinc.com> <http://newstaffinc.com>
Author, Consultant, Engineer, Legal Hacker, Researcher, Scientist.