Examples of self-doubling illusions like autoscopy, heautoscopy, and out-of-body experiences (OBE)

Three kinds of self-models

Keep these three kinds of self-models in mind as you study the odd states of self-consciousness.

• Physical body model. This is a model of the physical body, with joints, bones, meat, weight, velocity, shape, etc. It is put into a model of the physical world, and it cannot occupy the same volume as other solids. So for example, the arm of the body cannot sink into the desk.
• Astral body model. This model has the same shape as the physical body model. However, it has no weight, is not affected by gravity, has no organs, and though it has a volume, it cannot exclude anything else from the volume (it's like turning off collision in a game). It is basically a ghost in the shell of the physical body model. It is usually a bit smaller than the physical body model.
• Viewpoint model. A point in space augmented with a Cartesian frame, to represent the orientation of your viewpoint. It represents your "true location". It is perched between the eyes of the astral body model, facing straight forward. 
  It is used to model where the sound you are hearing is coming from. So for example, if you hear a noise on the left, that would be modeled as a sound source to the left of the viewpoint. 
  It is also used to model where what you are seeing is. So for example, if you see a ball straight ahead, that is modelled as a ball straight ahead of the viewpoint.
  Note that even in a blind-deaf person, there is still a viewpoint model. It is simply not used to assist in inference of audio and visual input. Even a blind-deaf person must feel like they are somewhere in spacetime. That "somewhere" is the location of the viewpoint model within the world model.

These three self-models are meant to synthesize different kinds of sensory data. Here, I am speculating since I can't find papers about this.

• Physical body model synthesizes sensory input on the body: location of localized pain, heat, coldness, touch, pressure.
• Astral body model synthesizes proprioceptive input, vestibular input, and active motor output. 
• Viewpoint model synthesizes location of visual and auditory sources. Basically, if you hear something from the left, and sees something 
  Your viewpoint model is updated continuously by sensory input. There is a constant inference loop between your viewpoint model and the visual sources and audio sources in the world model, as your brain tries to integrate all visual, auditory, vestibular, and other senses into one consistent model of the world with a viewpoint.
• If the ear senses an acceleration upwards, that would tend to move your viewpoint model up. 
• If the eye sees most of the scenery moving to the right, that would tend to move your viewpoint model to the left, or turn it to the left. 
• If the eye sees most of the scenery staying still, but a small blob moving to the right, you would keep your viewpoint model stable, but move the model of the blob.
  

The art of ventriloquism is all about confusing the viewpoint model, so that the sound source is incorrectly modelled.

Four mice and one cat

A sad story by Zheng Yuanjie. Originally published as 四只老鼠和一只猫的故事.

There were four little mice, living in constant fear and loathing of a cat named Lina. Lina was very fierce towards them and often bullied them to a corner.

One day, the little mice came upon a puppet dog from the puppet theater company, and they decided to disguise themselves as a dog to frighten Lina. They had seen Lina being scared of dogs.

They got into the body of the puppet dog like lion dancers. Two rode on the necks of the other two, and the pair at the back grabbed the tails of the pair at the front. Just like that, the puppet dog stood up.

Let's read: Dead Men's Dialogue

In this post we read through Borges's story Dead Men's Dialogue, which, other than the usual kind of maddening riddles that writers play, where they only say half of what is said, and I have to fill in the other half, is extra hard to read for me because it is full of references to South American history that I don't know.

So I'll fill in all the blanks here.

Dead Men’s Dialogue

Jorge Luis Borges

A story of an eusocial human species: Antman

This is a sketch of a eusocial human species modelled on ants. Let's call this species Antman.

The Antman has 3 castes: Workers, Soldiers, Researchers. Most of them are specialized, but a few are generalists who act as synthesizers and communicators between specialized areas.

Some of the generalists also act as temporary leaders, but there are no formally elected leaders.

An Antman society unit is a nest. The size of a nest depends on the local geography, but usually would grow up to that of a big modern city. The size is a balance between economy of scale, which favors bigness, and speed of moving things around inside, which favors smallness. Nearby nests usually cooperate very closely, more than a modern state.

A theory of free will and psychopathy

Free will

Define: an effectively deterministic system, or an apparent robot, is a system whose behavior can be predicted easily from its initial state and immediate surroundings.

Define: an effectively teleological system, or an apparent agent, is a system whose behavior cannot be predicted as above, but whose future state can be predicted somewhat.

Basically, an apparent robot is somebody that you can read like a book, and an apparent agent is somebody that you can't, but you can still guess what "goals" (likely future states) they have.

A successful creature needs to figure out what other creatures are going to do. But it's too hard to model them as apparent robots, just because how complicated creatures are. It's easier to model them as apparent agents.

Apparent agents are apparently free: they aren't apparently deterministic.

Apparent agents are willful: they do actions.

Thus, apparent agents apparently have free will. To say someone "has free will" means that someone is a creature that does things in a way you can't predict.

Let's Hilariously Read: Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives (2009)

Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives (2009) is a collection of 40 short stories about how afterlife could work.

Imma just comment on each of them with 1 sentence, then with more if it seems needed.

Like THIS.

Let's read: $C^*$-algebra, quantum mechanics, Pascual Jordan

A modern mathematical proof is not very different from a modern machine, or a modern test setup: the simple fundamental principles are hidden and almost invisible under a mass of technical details. ---- Hermann Weyl

After 3 courses in analysis I have finally reached Banach algebras, I feel exhausted by the climb and yet there's more theory ahead until the true pinnacle: the theory of $C^*$-algebra, for quantum mechanics!

Let's read, what is being promised?

$C^*$-algebras were first considered in quantum mechanics to model algebras of physical observables... began with Heisenberg's matrix mechanics and in a more mathematically developed form with Pascual Jordan around 1933. Subsequently, John von Neumann attempted to establish a general framework for these algebras which culminated in a series of papers on rings of operators. These papers considered a special class of $C^*$-algebras which are now known as von Neumann algebras.

So experiments in quantum mechanics → weird behavior of observables in quantum mechanics → Heisenberg matrix mechanics → Jordan purified it into Jordan algebra → von Neumann generalized to rings of operators → von Neumann algebra generalized to $C^*$-algebras.