A NOTE OF INTRODUCTION

On the essential difference between thought and computation:

"Supposing that there were a machine whose structure produced thought, sensation, and perception, we could conceive of it as increased in size with the same proportions until one was able to enter into its interior, as he would into a mill. Now, on going into it he would find only pieces working upon one another, but never would he find anything to explain perception."
(Gottfried Leibnitz, "Monadology", 1714. qtd. on http://epistolar.livejournal.com/ on Oct. 31st, 2005 04:04 pm)

But note that the exploration can only take place if the machine is enlarged enough to be walked through. We understand things by moving through and around them, by seeing them from all sides. But what happens when the very thing we are trying to understand is constructing the space around us? What if the process that creates what we see deliberately obscures the components of its function?