Posted on 02/12/2005 4:24:09 PM PST by snarks_when_bored
Memories are not separate from the structure of the brain. there is no RAM. There is no memory reader. This is the current best hypothesis. It fits very nicely with our subjective sence of being "whole".
placemarker du jour
Well, sure, but only 3 people on your list are named "Steve."
Well thanks, maybe.
Goggling "SocialText" takes me to a forum/blogger workgroup software site called socialtext. They have some blogs they list, of which the ones I looked at were Deaniacs or affines.
Also one blogger who covers modern neuroscience, possibly of interest to Junior. See
http://www.socialtext.com/weblog/2005February.html
&
http://www.corante.com/brainwaves/
How? Our intentions cause the wheels to turn. Hmm.
We intend a lot of things that don't happen. What is the mechanism? The wind?
but more potently the design and parmeterization of processes, which processes may appear in the small to be random, but that are subject to a crafty process that engenders the desired result. The intelligence may be so subtle that its processes avoid discrete detection -- are not possible to distinquish from chaos, yet in aggregate it is design.
from this:
...``a complete elucidation of one and the same object may require diverse points of view which defy a unique description'' -- this is quite simply a fact about the world, much as the self-proclaimed empiricists of modernist science might prefer to deny it. In such a situation, how can a self-perpetuating secular priesthood of credentialed ``scientists'' purport to maintain a monopoly on the production of scientific knowledge?
RightWing: How? Our intentions cause the wheels to turn. Hmm. We intend a lot of things that don't happen. What is the mechanism? The wind?
On the level of classical physics, we can easily identify matter. But not so on the quantum level, where the existence of the Higgs field/boson is unconfirmed, or on the cosmic level, where most of the matter exhibits counter-indicative behavior, in particular the negative gravity of dark energy.
It parallels this instance, speaking to how an "intent" to move a finger can become a finger moved. The moved finger is classic, easy to identify. The physical mechanism is a bit more obscure because it involves a non-corporeal - information aka "success communications".
Moreover, the "intent" itself is non-corporeal, non spatial/non temporal. It cannot be put under a microscope, it cannot be measured like information as a reduction of uncertainty in the receiver, it cannot be translated to thermodynamics of the dissipation of energy into the local surroundings.
But "intent" is nevertheless the origin of the successful communication, in this case to move a finger - or in the albatross dropped from the Leaning Tower of Pisa flying away, while the dead one falls to the ground with the 12 lb cannonball.
You ask "how" our "intent" can originate a successful communication within the body. That is the tether between the consciousness (mind, soul, spirit - take your pick) and the brain. The intention itself is evidence of the difference between consciousness and the brain: contemplation, prediction, analysis, synthesis, etc.
So you ask about why some "intentions" don't manifest. One cause may be actual boundaries - physical boundaries of an autonomous organism. I cannot "intend" for a mountain to be moved, for instance, because the mountain is not part of my autonomy.
And yet, in the animal kingdom, there are groups of organisms (like bees, ants, schools of fish) which act with a single intent. Therefore, another cause may be "perceived" boundaries. I cannot "intend" the mountain to move because I believe I cannot - or vice versa, I can "intend" it to move and it will because I believe I can.
What is the mechanism?
On the other question--what is the matter of the law or of the state?
But it doesn't seem that it fits very nicely, if one does an thorough analysis of the subjective thought process.
We (or at least I, but I hardly think I'm unique in this) must "retrieve" the various elements of the thought process. We don't think wholly serially, it seems to me; that is one discrete impression/thought at a time. Not all the elements necessary to thought are streaming in via sense perception from the outside environment. Some are; but they would have no context in thought if we were unable to place them in relation with the "stuff" of memory -- recollections of past events, past analyses, etc.
I'm just trying to be descriptive here. Based on my own observations, the hypothesis you suggest does not seem to fit with what I know from experience.
So, then what???
When you calculate pi the numbers extend without end and without an apparent correlation. If you were to take a chunk of the numbers out of the extension, it might appear to be random. But it would not actually be random at all, because it originated with a simple calculation of circumference divided by diameter.
Thus what might seem as happenstance is actually "designed".
This is the basics of Kolmogorov complexity. Complexity is determined by the least algorithmic description. pi is not "complex".
It is also the objection of Wolfram to "randomness" per se. IOW, everything is an effect of a prior cause and thus only "pseudorandom". (Of course, this requires one to hold firmly to physical causality but that's another subject.)
It is also the basis of my standing hypothesis around here, i.e. that algorithm at inception is proof of intelligent design.
How does it work?
Retrieval of a specific memory item usually involves attempting to place ourselves in the situation or state of mind where we learned the item. There are a zillion tricks for this, and a few people have made a good living selling books and lecturing on memory systems.
There is in psychology a concept of "state dependent learning" which predicts, among other things, that things learned while under the influence of drugs will most readily be recalled under the same influence.
Something to keep in mind if you use uppers while cramming for an exam.
What is the matter of thought?
It is an origination, an inception, a beginning of a successful communication (Shannon information: the reduction of uncertainty in a receiver or molecular machine in going from a before state to an after state).
It is like the "Big Bang" only on a smaller scale: an origination.
Voila! A miracle!
Action at a distance? The aether? Very mysterious waving of hands--And it originates!
Hello Alamo-Girl! I suspect it isn't corporeal at all, in the sense of a bodily organ. I suspect it is something that is carried by a universal field, and can be accessed via the brain if we so direct it. But I certainly haven't worked out all the details yet!
In general, I think that consciousness is field-like at the level of the individual, and that moreoever there is such a thing as collective consciousness. It seems there are many instances of what appears to be collective consciousness in the natural world; e.g., the behavior of the social insects for instance. Also there seem to be instances of it in the human world, e.g., in what is known as "public opinion," or what we mean by zeitgeist or the spirit of the age for examples.
Dr. G. has suggested that the Bauer life principle also requires a field, at the organismic level, and also at the universal level. And of course, consciousness -- or at least rudimentary sensation or awareness -- is a property of every living being.
But for me, this is merely food for speculation at this point! :^)
Thank you so much for writing, and for your excellent posts today. Unfortunately, I've been a little tied up with work projects :^( , so have not been able to jump in as much as I'd like. (This working for a living business "is for the birds!" LOL!!!)
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