{"product_id":"the-codec-9798233215575","title":"The Codec","description":"\u003cp\u003e • Author(s): Ray-Ray LaLonde\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher: Ray-Ray LaLonde\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher Imprint: Ray-Ray LaLonde\u003cbr\u003e • BISAC: Mind \u0026amp; Body\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYou are sitting in a room, looking at a tree through a window. The\u003cbr\u003etree appears vivid, immediate, real. You have always assumed that this\u003cbr\u003eappearance is some version of what is actually there - filtered, perhaps, \u003cbr\u003eor distorted, but fundamentally a representation of the physical world\u003cbr\u003eoutside the glass.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis book argues that assumption is wrong.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe colour red does not exist, attenuated, in electromagnetic radiation\u003cbr\u003eat 700 nanometers. It does not exist there at all. Remove every perceiving\u003cbr\u003eorganism from the universe and the radiation remains - but the redness is\u003cbr\u003egone. Not hidden. Not inaccessible. Gone. The same is true of every quality\u003cbr\u003ethat makes up conscious experience: warmth, solidity, sound, the passage of\u003cbr\u003etime. None of them are properties of the physical world. All of them are\u003cbr\u003eoutputs of a translation process so complete that nothing in the output\u003cbr\u003eshares a common format with what went in.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is what a codec does. A film stored as binary data on a hard drive\u003cbr\u003ebears no resemblance to the images, sound, and emotional resonance that\u003cbr\u003eemerge when it plays. The ones and zeros don't look like anything. They\u003cbr\u003edon't sound like anything. The codec makes something from them that is\u003cbr\u003ecategorically different from what it was made of. \u003cem\u003eThe Codec\u003c\/em\u003e proposes\u003cbr\u003ethat biological perception works the same way - not as an analogy, but as\u003cbr\u003ea precise structural description of what the relationship between physical\u003cbr\u003ereality and conscious experience actually is.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMoving across four parts, the book builds this framework carefully and\u003cbr\u003etraces where it leads: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePart One: The Problem with the Window\u003c\/strong\u003e - follows the science and\u003cbr\u003ephilosophy of perception from na�ve realism through Helmholtz, Kant, \u003cbr\u003eDonald Hoffman's Interface Theory, and predictive processing to the precise\u003cbr\u003epoint where the standard accounts break down.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePart Two: The Codec\u003c\/strong\u003e - develops the Codec Framework: what it means\u003cbr\u003efor perception to be a categorical translation rather than a representation, \u003cbr\u003ewhy the concept of accuracy cannot apply across the translation boundary, \u003cbr\u003eand what this implies for the nature of colour, sound, time, and all of\u003cbr\u003econscious experience.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePart Three: The Kernel\u003c\/strong\u003e - argues that the physical substrate\u003cbr\u003egenerating conscious experience is not merely unknown but structurally\u003cbr\u003einaccessible - and that this conclusion follows necessarily from the\u003cbr\u003eframework, independently of any mysticism or scepticism about science.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePart Four: What Follows\u003c\/strong\u003e - extends the framework to dreams, \u003cbr\u003eartificial intelligence, the constructed self, the limits of language, \u003cbr\u003eand the nature of awe - asking what it means to live well inside a\u003cbr\u003erendered world you cannot step outside of.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing on neuroscience, philosophy of mind, evolutionary biology, \u003cbr\u003eand the structure of computation, \u003cem\u003eThe Codec\u003c\/em\u003e is written for anyone\u003cbr\u003ewho has ever sat still long enough to find ordinary perception strange -\u003cbr\u003eand wanted to follow that strangeness somewhere rigorous and true.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"Understanding the redness as a production makes it more interesting\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003erather than less.\"\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ray-Ray LaLonde","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47776032391319,"sku":"9798233215575","price":1764.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0666\/3471\/1191\/files\/9798233215575.webp?v=1777993886","url":"https:\/\/atlanticbooks.com\/products\/the-codec-9798233215575","provider":"Atlantic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}