From: Phillip Huggan (cdnprodigy@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Dec 22 2005 - 13:37:17 MST
I agree, mind is machine. But this machine utilizes electricity. So quantum effects appear at some level. Its not like anyone actually has a freakin clue what (physical) effect(s) really gives rise to sentience. I'm guessing the chemistry of our brains interacts in a way to produce (electrical?) fields. I don't know if these fields are consciousness, but they at least seem to be the clearest marker of it. If you don't believe this, fine. But you do have to advance some hypothesis for why you can't experience all the computation that exists in the universe. Your mind is restricted to the activities within substrate of your brain. Computation is only a function of the substrate it runs off of. Maybe I've resolved too far, and carbon chemical effects are ultimately responsible. But microbes utilize quantum effects without possessing any nervous system, I think it would be naive to assume our neurons couldn't have similiar capabilities. A single neuron can be the sole center
in remembering a person. Treating neurons as on/off switches is too coarse a resolution. Electromagnetic fields are not magic, they are a fundamental part of the physics of the universe.
Tennessee Leeuwenburg <tennessee@tennessee.id.au> wrote: Well, I completely disagree. It seems obvious that the componentry of
the brain (and body) is no more special than any other physical matter
in this universe. I *start* from the premise that the mind is a machine,
and conclude that consciousness is a feature (epiphenomena) of its
organisation. We have plenty of evidence for the machine nature of the mind.
<SNIP>
It may be that consciousness is not digital, but I don't think it is
magical. I don't think it's obvious that quantum effects are involved in
consciousness.
---------------------------------
Yahoo! Shopping
Find Great Deals on Holiday Gifts at Yahoo! Shopping
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Jul 17 2013 - 04:00:54 MDT