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From: minsky@media-lab.media.mit.edu (Marvin Minsky)
Subject: Re: The I of the beholder
Message-ID: <1991Jun13.221217.16521@news.media.mit.edu>
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Organization: MIT Media Laboratory
References: <1991Jun12.130817.3621@kingston.ac.uk> <1991Jun12.232457.2962@news.media.mit.edu> <1991Jun13.163734.10165@cs.yale.edu>
Date: Thu, 13 Jun 1991 22:12:17 GMT

In article <1991Jun13.163734.10165@cs.yale.edu> mcdermott-drew@cs.yale.edu (Drew McDermott) writes:
>
>Okay, but what about this objection: There are no observers, indeed,
>but only boundaries imposed by .... who??
>
>Why do we grant such rock-solid existence to observers and not to
>chairs?

Speak for yourself.  Each mind has many poorly defined parts -- I call
them agencies.  It is only naive people -- that is, people who have
read too much philosophy -- that grant rock-solid existence to their
"self".  It is a pre-Freudian idea that an observer makes clear
distinctions, "believes" propositions, etc.