Beyond Grammar: On the Appearance and Reality of Prediction in the Brain
This blogpost is a continuation of a dialogue with Richard Gipps that started with his comments on Anil Seth's book 'Being You'. Here is his latest response . I am grateful to Richard Gipps for his continued engagement with me on this issue. I questioned the value of extending this exchange further, particularly since I greatly admire Gipps and have no desire to prolong a dialogue just for the sake of it. However, I think I do have meaningful things to say in response to the points brought up by Gipps in his last post, and this offers an opportunity for further clarification. #1. Orbits What I have been trying to say is that when it comes to movements of objects, there are aspects , or relationships , or facts (if you will) about how things are that transcend any grammatical rule we may employ to talk about something. For instance, take this rule as expressed by Gipps: “What's properly said to orbit what (the sun orbits the earth, or the earth orbits the sun)