[Buddha-l] Query about Francisco Varela

[Mike Austin]

In message <BAY111-F1809B7D61AE07D5898A283D4B20 at phx.gbl>, Barnaby Thieme 
<bathieme at hotmail.com> writes
>
>A simple illustration of this fact of perception is to observe that for 
>every nerve travelling from the retina to the visual cortex, there are 
>ten travelling in the opposite direction. Within the supposedly-bare 
>act of visual processing at its very source, the mind is intensively 
>active in shaping and determining the structure of visual information 
>based on heuristics, prediction, and filling-in-the blanks.

Fascinating. I would like to read more about this.  In particular, it is 
not clear to me why the number and 'direction' of the nerves indicates a 
constructive process. If it is being suggested that these nerves carry a 
similar amount of information, then any constructive process would occur 
in the retina itself. Where would be the capacity for the results of the 
process to return to the visual cortex? What recommendations do you have 
for further reading?

-- 
Metta
Mike Austin