Where Does Meaning Reside?

In Douglas Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach, this question is traced back to another question: “Can we say that meaning is inherent in a message, or is meaning always created by the interaction between the message and a mind or mechanism?” Conscious activity can be easily understood as analogous to listening to music. Consider the following:

• Music: Information composed of [sound].
• Record: Stores information corresponding to [music]. This information can be extracted using the [groove pattern] on the surface of the record. (Information storage medium)
• Turntable: Converts the grooves on the [record] into [sound]. In other words, it decodes the information stored in the record and realizes it physically. (Information realization medium)

Based on this structure, listening to music can be viewed as follows: First, we can say that there is a message, [music]. To understand what this message means, one must decode the information, and the surface of the record, which contains this music, is engraved with grooves. If a thin, pointed object is rubbed against the record’s surface, one can extract sound information from the groove patterns. In other words, there is an isomorphism between the [groove pattern] and the [sound]. This isomorphism allows us to physically realize the music. If we apply this perspective to conscious activities—like speech production—then:

• Mind: Information composed of [meaning].
• Brain: Stores information corresponding to the [mind]. This information can be extracted using [A] in the brain. (Information storage medium)
• Body’s speech organ: Converts [A] in the [brain] into [sound]. In other words, it decodes the information in the brain and realizes it physically. (Information realization medium)

First, there is a message, the [mind], and there is a storage medium, the [brain], that contains it. Observing the act of speaking, we can say that the body acts as a realization medium that decodes the information. Therefore, as with the isomorphism between [groove pattern] and [sound], it is necessary to find [A—some pattern that projects the mind] in the brain that can be equated with [meaning]. Can we find a concept that can be reduced to a unit of consciousness? Such a line of thinking has been the approach of ToC so far. However, if consciousness doesn’t have any units, then the initial approach itself might have been flawed… because consciousness may not be a substance or state but rather the very form itself.