The Inputs We Have
Our (or, more specifically, my) input is very diverse. But it does require a bit of introspection to figure out what input consists of. When we talk about input or experience, we almost always think first about our five senses. But, of course, our physical senses are more diverse than just sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing. We can sense temperature, balance, and body movement, among others.
But physical senses are just the raw input; we do not perceive information as a set of colors, smells, and vibrations. Instead, we intuitively bundle them into groups. We do not sense “red, round, and sweet.” We sense an “apple”. We do not sense, trapezoid and brown, and wooden texture; we sense a rectangular table. This bundling of perceptions we will call labeling, and the complete perceptions themselves — labels.
But before we discuss the most common labels that we use, it is worth mentioning what other kinds of raw input exist. Besides senses, we also experience recall, or memories of what seem to be past events, as well as stored facts. “Two plus two equals four” is not something we are experiencing, but something we recall. Just like “I brushed my teeth this morning” or “He parked in front of my car.” We also have expectations or predictions that appear; we can think of how we will brush our teeth tomorrow or about what our investments will yield. Recall and predictions are experiences of thought—operation over existing labels.
We also experience agency. When our arms move, we often do not just talk about the sensory feelings associated with the arm movement; we feel like the arms have been moved by us, and not on their own. This feeling of agency is often granted higher status than it deserves. It is very much separable from the actions we perform. We do not have this feeling when we blink or when we take a step, when walking, or when we engage in some activity. We do not have this feeling when we move our fingers to type or eat. Sometimes this feeling occurs, and sometimes it doesn’t.
The final important feeling that we have is the feeling of desire or aversion, the feeling of goodness or badness of an experience. The feeling that accompanies the taste of something delicious and the taste of something disgusting, the feeling we have when achieving our goals or failing at our endevours. We will call this extra feeling “utility”. Utility, like sight or touch, gives experiences an extra dimension. It is hard to describe what good or bad experiences feel like, just like it is difficult to describe what sour, blue, or soft is. We can describe what generates, or, rather, seems to generate, these feelings, but not what these feelings are like.
This sets us up nicely for a discussion of more complex concepts and ideas that are derivative of the feelings mentioned here.
