@nameless,
OK The discussion I had on this thread was not really along the lines I had hoped. I have since updated my site
(here) and shall include the main theory here. My question to everyone is;
if this process was programmed and enacted within a suitable computer could it achieve self-awareness? If not, why not?
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The Temporal Cycle
Here we shall consider a schematic of the temporal cycle, and follow through the temporal loop including its derivative and worldly functions. This (top) loop is the basic function of Dasein, the continued Anticipation of the Now and Now-that-was to produce the Potentiality-for-Being, and the Making-present of that Potentiality with the senses to produce the Now. These two Interpretations, with respect to the Entities of Dasein, would in our ancestors have provided (and still do, in us and higher order animals) a sense of what is to come within-the-World around us.
The bottom right loop is the derivative (weak) Interpretative cycle, allowing Dasein to "see" a Potentiality beyond the immediate. The bottom left loop is how Dasein interacts with the World in which it lives, and the other instances of Dasein, the They. This loop is also vital for sentience to emerge, particularly, it is key in developing the Entity-of-Dasein (the "ego") and for subsequently enabling purpose.
Now + Now-that-was
The Now is the current state of Dasein in the present. Its Being is one of the Entities at hand, the senses and Entities of the present as they relate to the Entity of Dasein and as the Function of Dasein determines the present to be. At any one moment in time, the Now is the collection of Entities that the Function of Dasein is "experiencing" at that time, the focus of Dasein's ken, the region of Dasein that is the present.
The Now-that-was is the remnant Entities of a just-passed Now, the Being of Dasein as it was a moment before. This short, immediate "history" of Dasein is vital to provide a vector, so to speak, for the extrapolatory Interpretation called Anticipation. To perform a strong temporal Interpretation, a comparison of two things is required. The Now-that-was then serves to produce, on Interpretation with the Now, a differential, the change in Being of Dasein, which change can be identified with changes in the memory of Dasein, it's Entities.
Anticipation
As said, by Interpreting the Now and the Now-that-was, Anticipation produces an Interpretive product that is a status of the Being of Dasein, in the future, based on the Entities held within Dasein (its past experiences, thus Anticipation is "with respect to the past"). This Interpretive product is called the Potentiality-for-Being.
Potentiality-for-Being
Just as the Now is the state of Being of Dasein in the present, the Potentiality-for-Being is the state of Being of Dasein in a possible future. The nature of that future, the quality of the prediction so the speak, is clearly dependent on the range and depth of experiences Dasein has stored as Entities that are Interpretistically relevant to the Now at hand. If it has encountered a similar situation before, then the Anticipation Interpretation is more likely to be accurate.
An important feature of the system to note at this point is the temporality created by this predictive Interpretation. By taking Dasein into a possible future, the Being of Dasein is not only in the past through its Entities, nor also in the present through its senses, but reaching into a future it has created of its own accord. This point will be very important for the emergent properties of Dasein, discussed in the Birth of Dasein and the Development of Dasein, and also the conception of time possessed by Dasein.
One should envisage the loop of the three main states of the Now-that-was, the Now and the Potentiality-for-Being not as a cycle to be followed round and around, for if one did then at any moment one's focus would be away from some part of the loop, but as a continuous and parallel flow of information.
Senses
The senses obviously take physical interactions in-the-World and translate these to signal patterns "readable" by Dasein. There may be some degree of "pre-processing" whereby the sense "organ" in question encodes or optimises the signal for Interpretation, but this is not strictly necessary and is rather a way to help subsequent functions focus on what has been determined important in the sense, by evolution or the creator.
Making-present
The Making-present is the second big Interpretation performed by Dasein, it compares the Anticipation Interpretation (future) with the senses (present) and in doing so creates the Now, completing the cycle. For the Potentiality-for-Being to be assessed and productive, it must be brought back to the present, and in Interpreting it thus with the senses, the predicted state of Being of the World can be reckoned with what the senses record.
Again, there are emergent properties of this system that are discussed on other pages. But even now one should be able to simply imagine the effect this would have on the casual execution of Dasein. Consider dropping a ball in front of yourself. At any one "moment" in time, Dasein has the current position of the ball as the Now, and traces from its immediate knowledge of where the ball was an instant before to Anticipate where it shall be next (with respect to prior experience, Interpretation is of Dasein's Entities); and this Potentiality-for-Being is appreciated whilst the ball is falling. The senses will then corroborate this in a normal situation, the Making present brings this synthesis of the future and the present back to the Now, and Dasein's expectations have been realised. They didn't have to be realised, but this is a matter for other sections.
Motor action
For the instance of Dasein to interact with the World and the They it must partake of motor action to effect a change in the World. In humans this takes one of two forms; speech or skeletal muscle movement, generally associated with movement of the limbs. The Potentiality-for-Being provides, in the possible future of what Dasein may become, the goal for said movement. In the process of execution to reach this goal, other parts of the instance, the cerebellum in humans or example, are dedicated to achieving the plan through translation to coordinated skeletal muscle contraction.
Attention control
The process as described thus far has two intrinsic problems which have a common solution. First is the continuous increase in the amount of information being introduced into the cycle; the derivative Potentiality-for-Being and the senses mean that there is potentially more data to arrive back at the Now than departed. Secondly, not all this data is of import to the instance at any one time, to Be concerned with inconsequentialities at a time of danger could be fatal for Dasein.
Therefore, Dasein has control over the weighting of its own Interpretations in the form of a "gating" signal system (in green) that may promote or inhibit certain Interpretive pathways. Like all possibilities of action this originates in the Potentiality-for-Being, sending regulator signals to major sites in the process; this is akin to motor action since Dasein is becoming its potentiality through self action, but here in the most direct manner and at a level undetectable to its senses and Entities, thus it is "sub-conscious".
As a consequence, rather than Being "everywhere at once" within its own Being, Dasein can emphasise Being within the Now by inhibiting Anticipation, or focus upon the sense of hearing; always by acting upon a Potentiality-for-Being. The problem of lost information is sidestepped by selecting what is relevent-to-hand and the problem of Being "in the wrong place" is directly confronted by allowing Dasein to Be where it deems to be important.