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How do we recognize "understanding"? Somebody else's? It depends of course on our own ability to understand. What do I mean when I say: "I understand"?

 

The ultimate (absolute) semantic domain: the syntax of reality? Whose reality?

 

Brains recognize (and hence distinguish) a vast number of objects/processes/actions. Keeping them apart is equivalent to the very act of naming. The latter usually happens in social (communication) contexts (words being socially agreed pointers). Brains reason about objects/processes/actions based on (absolute) semantics, i.e. on the syntax of reality as mapped by sense organs onto brain structures and processes.

 

Nothing is artificial. As humans are products of nature, so is the human mind and so are the products of human minds. Even creating a schism between man and nature is natural.

 

What is mind? The ability of matter to seek and to react to signals in non-arbitrary ways. What is consciousness? The ability of matter to reflect signals internally. Hence consciousness is a special but non-necessary property of mind, and there is neither mind nor consciousness without matter. Dualism is a myth, worse: a fallacy.

 

Free Will(2): If we believed in the existence of an omniscient and omnipotent entity controlling every move in the universe then we would have to deny us free will. Would such an entity have free will?

 

Can digital computers emulate human minds? (Or: is cognition computation?) Perhaps. But it is certain that human minds can  emulate digital computers: they can compute and have even built digital computers whereas digital computers - so far - have not succeeded in building a single human mind!

 

MIND MATTER MATTERS