The "Brain in a Vat" is a famous philosophical puzzle. It raises issues of "How do we know there's a World 'out there'?" and so forth.

But what do we call call a Brain in a Bone Box (skull), connected to the rest of the universe only via feeble electro-chemical membrane-discharge wires (neurons) to noisy unreliable sensors (eyes, ears, nose, skin, etc)? It sure feels like there's a World "out there" – a World that's incredibly complex, overflowing with joy and beauty (and pain and tragedy). As new bits of the World are discovered, they seem completely consistent with what we already know. "Stuff makes sense", though sometimes only after considerable study, as per the discoveries of modern physics, biology, etc.

How awesome and wonderful to be a Brain in a Bone Box, and to know it!

(cf Polygon Power (1999-06-19), Freudian Paralysis (2003-03-23), Appear vs Is (2006-10-19), Problems of Knowledge (2010-07-29), ...) - ^z - 2023-08-10