But I think it is a serious issue to wonder about the other platonic absolutes of say beauty and morality.

Well I didn't actually see the Matrix but I've seen other movies where with similar sorts of themes.

My own way of thinking is to ponder long and I hope deeply on problems and for a long time which I keep away for years and years and I never really let them go.

Intelligence cannot be present without understanding. No computer has any awareness of what it does.

our present picture of physical reality, particularly in relation to the nature of time, is due for a grand shake up

I imagine that whenever the mind perceives a mathematical idea, it makes contact with Plato's world of mathematical concepts... When mathematicians communicate, this is made possible by each one having a direct route to truth, the consciousness of each being in a position to perceive mathematical truths directly, through the process of 'seeing'.

It is hard to see how one could begin to develop a quantum-theoretical description of brain action when one might well have to regard the brain as "observing itself" all the time!