Neural Simulation
Modern neuroscience or commentaries on modern neuroscience often say things like:
This language arose mainly from predictive processing models.
Those models correctly show that:
But when people say “simulation,” they often unconsciously slide into the computer metaphor, which suggests:
The fact is that the “simulation” metaphor is culturally misleading. For many people today, the word simulation immediately evokes:
Those narratives imply:
So the metaphor or word "simulation", although neuroscientists themselves know what they are talking about, for many lay people pulls the mind in the wrong direction. The IIP–VGF framework avoids this potential confusion. In the framework there is no deeper hidden physical world that the brain is imitating. Instead:
The world is not simulated by the brain. Brain, organism, and environment are co-generated closures within the same generative process. The perceived world is the stable experiential face of that closure.
- “the brain constructs the world”
- “the brain simulates reality”
- “perception is controlled hallucination”.
This language arose mainly from predictive processing models.
Those models correctly show that:
- perception involves internal generative models,
- the brain predicts sensory input.
But when people say “simulation,” they often unconsciously slide into the computer metaphor, which suggests:
- a separate underlying reality being simulated.
The fact is that the “simulation” metaphor is culturally misleading. For many people today, the word simulation immediately evokes:
- computer games
- virtual reality
- The Matrix (as in the science fiction movies).
Those narratives imply:
- a hidden external reality,
- and an artificial world layered on top of it.
So the metaphor or word "simulation", although neuroscientists themselves know what they are talking about, for many lay people pulls the mind in the wrong direction. The IIP–VGF framework avoids this potential confusion. In the framework there is no deeper hidden physical world that the brain is imitating. Instead:
The world is not simulated by the brain. Brain, organism, and environment are co-generated closures within the same generative process. The perceived world is the stable experiential face of that closure.