Joscha Bach

So the computer is insulating this world of Minecraft from our world.

It makes it possible that an arbitrary world is happening inside of this box.

And our brain is also such a causal insulator.

It's possible for us to have thoughts that are independent of what happens around us.

We can envision a future that is not much tainted by the present.

We can remember a past that is independent from the present in which we are.

And it's necessary for us.

Our brain has evolved as such a causal insulator as well to allow us to

give rise to universes that are different from this one.

For instance, future worlds, so we can plan for being in them.

Predict, control, understand first.

So predict means that you say, I'm going to do a thing.

What will be this value of my machine?

What will appear on my computer screen in the future?

That is predict.

Control is, I want to measure this thing in the future and I want it to come out 17.

Right?

That's control.

Understand is a lot like predict, except there's a human in the loop.

Understand means that I have such a small collection of facts.