a question about "filters"?

Question

by filters i mean the mental processes that make sure we think of things like the rain as 'rain' instead of condensed water vapor, arrangements of photons entering our eyes, a wave, a pit-pat sound on the roof, slippery stuff, or other things

my question is: do filters obscure meaning?
since thinking of rain as arrangements of photons isnt very helpful, does it matter if they obscure meaning?

and finally:
what are we? arrangements of photons? scattered memories in our mind and the minds of those who know us best? spirits? watery bags of squishy organs and bones? dust in the wind? what?

tell me please :)

Answer 1

OK, first: don't think of these as 'filters', but as models and 'maps'. A map tries to extract the significant information about something, and do it accurately, but leave out the items and factors that are unnecessary to the type of understanding or information you need to deal with that thing. As a geographical map does.

If you think about it, you'll see that a great deal of the thinking we do about real-world stuff involves making maps of it in some way: we don't think of paint as a complex polymer, we only consider its colour, etc. The money we have in our pockets is not significant because of the paper itself, but by the total of the numbers on it. And money itself is a map - of worth, or work, or purchasing power.

So we are, indeed, arrangements of atoms; and our memories and software; and we're bags of sticks and jelly. All of these descriptions are maps of real aspects of us.

They're all correct, but they may not all be appropriate for all types of thinking about people: when you need a friend, their atoms don't count much.

There's lots more, of course...

CD

Answer 2

Zero Cool and SuperAtheist are on track.

"We are stardust"
or nuclear waste spewed out of failed atomic reactors.
(all heavy elements beyond hydrogen and helium formed by fusion in the hearts of stars that then exploded, scattering these vital materials through the universe, long before the earth formed: thank you, Fred Hoyle)

Yes, how you "colour" the world affects how you interact with it. But we have to have some sort of model, map, schema to operate. We even have to have one to investigate which of our models and maps are better... now that can get into a loop!

Tom Lehrer: "Life is like a sewer. What you get out of it depends on what you out into it."

Answer 3

I think you could spend your time better listening to the song "We are just dust in the wind". It should give you a better answer than what you are going to get in here.

Answer 4

You're thinking of "schemata".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schema_%28psychology%29