Hofstadter, Dennett - The Mind's I

A Conversation with Einstein’s Brain 434this idiosyncrasy makes as much sense, given what I know of you any of the rest.TORTOISE: A condescending view. How would you like it, if some friend "revealed" toyou that you'd never correctly understood a Leonardo painting-in reality, it shouldbe listened to, not looked at, and sixty-two minutes long, in eight movements, andcontains long p sages with nothing but the loud ringing of many different-sizedbellsACHILLES: That is an odd way to think of paintings. But .TORTOISE: Did I ever tell you about my friend the alligator, who enjo music while lyingon his back in the sun?ACHILLES: Not that I recall.TORTOISE: He has the advantage of having no shell covering his belly So whenever hewants to "hear" a lovely piece, he picks out the appropriate disk and slaps itsharply for an instant against his stomach. The ecstasy of absorbing so manyluscious patterns all a once, he tells me, is indescribable. So just think-hisexperience is, as novel to me as mine is to you!ACHILLES: But how can he tell the difference between one record an another?TORTOISE: To him, slapping Bach and Beethoven against his belly are as different as toyou slapping a waffle iron and a velvet pad against yo bare back would be!ACHILLES: In so turning the tables on me, Mr. T, you have shown me on thing yourpoint of view must be just as valid as mine-and if I dI not admit it, I should be anauditory chauvinist pig.TORTOISE: Well put-admirably put! Now that we have gone over o relative points ofview, I will have to confess to being familiar wI your way of listening to playingrecords, rather than looking at them odd though it does seem to me. Thecomparison between the tw types of experience was what inspired me to exploitthis example as an analogy to what I wish to present to you now, Achilles.ACHILLES: More of your usual trickery, I see. Well, go on with it-I' all eyes.TORTOISE: All right. Let's suppose that I came to you one morning with a very bigbook. You'd say, "Hullo, Mr. Tortoise-what's in that big.. book you're carryingwith you?" (if I'm not mistaken); and I'd reply "It's a schematic description ofAlbert Einstein's brain, down to the cellular level, made by some painstaking andslightly crazy neurolo