Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83 based; site hounx.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!hounx!kort
From: kort@hounx.UUCP (B.KORT)
Newsgroups: net.ai,net.philosophy
Subject: Re: A halting problem
Message-ID: <536@hounx.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 26-Jan-86 10:38:40 EST
Article-I.D.: hounx.536
Posted: Sun Jan 26 10:38:40 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 26-Jan-86 20:34:21 EST
References: <2175@aecom.UUCP>, <443@kepler.UUCP> <518@hounx.UUCP>, <846@rtech.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 29
Xref: watmath net.ai:3223 net.philosophy:3954

>> I don't know how to prove the existence of such a state of
>> meta-awareness, but it sure *feels* that I have such a state.
>> I can't tell you the first time I entered that state; at the
>> time I entered it, I wasn't aware of the possibility of being
>> in such a state.  It's a bit introspective, and I don't recommend
>> dwelling there to the exclusion of more ordinary states of awareness.
>> 
>> --Barry Kort

Roger Rohrbach responds:

>	I second this, except for the last sentence (that state is 
>uncomfortable, which is probably why you don't recommend staying
>there (it's not possible to stay there very long anyway), but it
>subsumes our "more ordinary states of awareness".

Roger misinfers the reason why I don't recommend dwelling to excess
in states of higher awareness.  It's not uncomfortable for *me*.
It's uncomfortable for others around me.  My experience is that
it can drive others crazy, because they sometimes have trouble
coping with the seemingly bizarre behavior of a person in a heightened
state.  Try spending an hour with someone in which you continnually
point out to them your disembodied observations of their state of 
being, or your own state of mind.  It's like a nonstop encounter
session.  Too much for most people to handle.  Hence my recommendation
is to pop in and out, and keep a healthy balance.  We have to take
time to smell the flowers along the way and have a bit of fun, too.

--Barry Kort