999 Laboratory Dialogue

Lotus: Oh, but back to what we were talking about earlier...
Junpei: What were we talking about?
Lotus: The wireless display.
Lotus: It's kind of strange if you think about it, isn't it?
Junpei: ?
Lotus: Hmm... How do I put it...
Lotus: Well, let's say you write a program that calculates an addition problem
for you, all right?
Lotus: So you enter 1 + 1...
Lotus: The screen will show you 2.
Lotus: See? Isn't that strange?
Junpei: U-Uh...no? Not really...
Lotus: Oh come on now. Of course a caveman like you would think it was strange.
You said so just a minute ago.
Junpei: ?
Lotus: You're just not getting it, are you?
Lotus: Who calculated 1 + 1?
Junpei: The...uh, the main computer, right? You said it's connected to the
monitor wirelessly.
Lotus: Yeah, but someone who grew up in a cave wouldn't know that, right?
Lotus: They'd probably think that this thing here, the monitor, is doing the
calculating.
Lotus: And once they've decided that, they'll start examining this monitor.
Lotus: They might poke the screen or something...
Lotus: "Ah, I see, the color changes when I press it here..."
Lotus: Then they might investigate the hardware on the inside...
Lotus: "Ah, I see, so this wire supplies power..."
Lotus: Eventually, they might even cut the wires...
Lotus: "Ah yes, just as I expected. When this wire is cut, no results
appear..."
Lotus: "Therefore, it must be this device which does the calculations!"
Junpei: ...
Lotus: But the truth is that, just like you said, the computer is doing the
calculating.
Lotus: But these cave people wouldn't know that...
Lotus: Because they have no idea that the monitor and the computer are
connected wirelessly.

Lotus continued to type.
Junpei scratched his head.

Junpei: So...uh...what are you trying to say?
Lotus: Nothing. Really. It's just... I thought maybe...
Lotus: What if the relationship between human beings and our brains is like
that?
Junpei: ...Huh?
Lotus: Well, let's say you stick a bunch of electrodes into parts of the brain.
Lotus: A scientist examining the signals they send out might say...
Lotus: "Interesting, so stimulating this part of the the brain causes this
person to see colors..."
Lotus: "That must mean this neuron cluster controls that function."
Lotus: "Okay, let's see what happens when I cut out this part..."
Lotus: "Ah, just what I thought! Cutting off this part causes that function to
cease!"
Lotus: "Therefore, human thought processes must occur in the human brain!"
Lotus: You get it? It's just like this monitor.
Junpei: ...
Lotus: Maybe the brain is just an output device--like this monitor.
Lotus: Maybe our thought processes actually occur somewhere else, in a "main
body"...
Lotus: ...We just don't know it. We never even think about it...
Lotus: Just like those cave people wouldn't know about wireless
communications...
Lotus: ...We can't imagine that there's some unknown medium that transfers
information into our brains, where we experience that information as thoughts.

Junpei didn't say anything.
Not so much because he had no retort. No, her argument just seemed...silly, and
he was a little surprised to be hearing something like it from someone like
her.
The brain is just an output device? Human thought actually occurs somewhere
else...?
Did Lotus really think that, he wondered?
It was a little creepy, Junpei thought. It sounded altogether too much like a
bizarre cultish religion.

Lotus: Maybe that's the cause of Seven's amnesia.

Oblivious to Junpei's increasing discomfort, Lotus continued.

Lotus: If memory is actually stored somewhere else, in some sort of "main body"
somewhere...
Lotus: Maybe he hasn't "forgotten" anything at all.
Lotus: He's just having a difficult time accessing his memories because the
monitor--his brain--has been damaged.
Junpei: ...
Lotus: I suppose that would explain aphasias and blindsight, too.
Lotus: Perhaps they actually can speak, or see...
Lotus: The monitor just isn't functioning properly.