6.6 Momentary Mental Time


"It takes some time for changes in one part of a mind to affect the other parts. There's always some delay." (NB: This is similar to Dennett's view in Consciousness explained, and provides more ammunition against the "Cartesion theatre" or the single-agent view.)

It is simply impossible, in general, for any agent P to know for certain what another agent Q is doing at precisely the same time. The best that P can do is send a query straight to Q and hope that Q can get a truthful message back before other agents change Q's state -- or change its message along the way." Because of this, each agency lives in a slightly (or more than slightly) different world of time.


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