The Genome Achieves Consciousness

[thesieve]

This entry is straight out of my personal journal. Suitable material will always be cross posted here to give you a sense of who I am and what I'm about.For all of our seeming incredible complexity, what makes us human is locked up in a shiftily vague structure called the "Mind

Comments

[king_felix]

I always have trouble with arguments that separate "mind" from "brain" because it sets up this view where "mind" is something mystical, or supernatural. In essence, a fancy way of saying "soul".* The reason this bothers me in particular is because we've never encountered "mind" without "brain". This seems to imply that there is at least some connection, perhaps, some interdependence.

We are minds, our bodies are irrelevant.

I don't think it's so simple. How can it be said that our bodies are irrelevant to mind, when one can so easily find evidence of physiological causes of altered states of mind -- drugs, and chemicals in their many forms. If mind can be altered in this way, it is done so purely through physical means -- again -- implying there there is a connection, as if the "brain" where the hardware for software of "mind".

And yes, I understand that such computer/technological metaphors are insufficient to really take full stock of what's going on, but I think they can be helpful.

*I think part of why it bothers me, and figuring into the "mystical" line of thought again is that implicit in this drive to separate matter from mind is a view that sees the physical as profane, or unworthy to partake of the praise that is heaped on the cleaner (though, more abstract, less substantial) mind.

[thesieve]

Whether you believe in a soul or not (I do, and actually view it as distinct from mind.) I think we can find common ground if I were say that my point of view comes from considering the mind as an emergent property of the interactions of the millions and billions of chemical reactions the brain houses. If that seems mysterious, it is only because we do not properly understand it yet. I do believe that the mind is not beyond the reach of the scientific method as the soul is, but I do believe that it is a "big picture" problem, and that without looking at all the different processes of the brain at once and in unison, than you cannot grasp what the mind is about.