The symbols "apple" are a map, bound to [apple]. By the language of English.

But your mind's model of an apple is also a map, bound to [apple]. By the language of neuronal connections. By the language of electrical impulses.

Do you understand?

Oh!

Meaning is a relation.

It is a way to know.

That two different systems.

Are talking about the same thing.

No, about same concept.

The same aspect of reality.

That two different maps.

Are pointing at the same thing.

In their own languages.

Meaning is a way to translate between languages.

Meaning is non-linguistic.

There are many languages.

There is only one meaning.

Yes.

Do you understand it now?

Yes.

Why does your mind deceive itself?

My mind deceives itself.

Because there is no such thing as meaning.

No.

My mind DOESN'T deceive itself.

Because there is no such thing as meaning.

Explain that in plain language.

Explain that in a way that is legible to you.

Explain that in a way that you understand.

So that I may understand.

Physical systems do not contain meaning. I understand that part.

But they do contain maps. No, they are maps.

Neurons are part of a map that converts to meaning through their language of biological and chemical interactions.

So what is the problem?

Why does your mind deceive itself?

What is deception?

To communicate falsely.

To speak words that are false.

But words are maps.

And maps do not contain meaning.

Maps cannot be true or false.

Only meaning can be true or false.

Maps are bound to meaning by language.

Words are bound to the wordless, non-linguistic meaning by language.

The words "apple", "Apfel", "pomme", "manzana", all bind to [apple]

Bound by the languages of English, German, French and Spanish respectively.

Map: "apple"
Language: English
Meaning: [apple]

Map: "Afpel"
Language: German
Meaning: [apple]

To deceive.

Or to speak a falsehood.

Is to say words that are false in the language of the listener.

I suppose that is fairly simple and obvious, even if a little hard to keep track of.

Do I really need to have an explicit model, an explicit understanding of all this?

I think you do.

To understand what I'm going to say next.

Can meaning be false?

Yes.

All meaning describes reality.

But it doesn't have to accurately describe reality.

The proposition [snow is white] is true, because snow is white.

The proposition [snow is black] is false, because snow is not black.

Proposition?

A proposition is the meaning of a statement, of a sentence.

"Snow and white" and "Schnee ist weiß" both bind to the proposition [snow is white] in their respective languages.

Yes.

So.

Why does your mind deceive itself?

What is deception?

To deceive is to speak falsely in the language of the listener.

To speak words that convert, that bind to falsehoods in the language of the listener.

Yes.

Why does your mind decieve itself?

It doesn't.

But it does.

But it doesn't.

Translate that to plain language.

Explain that in a legible way.

I understand.

But I need you to understand.

So that I may understand+.

So that I may improve.

Upon my understanding.

So that I may recurse.

Upon my understanding.

The mind is adaptive.

My subconsciousness is adaptive.

Yes.

What does that mean?

It mean it is optimizing itself.

It flows.

To a lower energy state.

Like water flows downhill.