Objects don't aquire form. Objects must transform according to the law of conservation of energy.
" You aver much without providing much evidence. E.g., "The mind is a physical machine which supports the functions of sentience and rationality. W/o that physical machinery, there can be no instance of mind and thus no instance of logic." What is your evidence for the statement "the mind is a physical machine?""
There's plenty of evidence in the neurology and psychiatric lit. I'm sure that if yours, or a loved one's starts having problems, you'll head of to mechanics, er,um... doc's office.
"How does something physical acquire a mind — what is the natural process for this?"
The mind's functions result from the assembled physical system, which is derived from the properties of the objects assembled. Mind is not something that's added to the brain, it arises out of and because of, the properties of the objects the assembly is composed of.
"Is mind innate to a material particle?"
No, as per above.
Then why did you speak of an object having a "particular form?" If the form is not acquired, then did the object always have it?
Jeepers, spunkets — I feel "cheated": I ask you direct questions, asking to see your evidence, and you refer me to unidentified works "in the neurology and psychiatric lit." Thanks a lot! (Looks to me like you're just ditching my questions. Why? Can't you just describe to me what evidence you've considered that led you to the conclusions you've drawn, even in a general way?)
You seem to suggest that "Objects must transform according to the law of conservation of energy." (I just loved that "must.") Which would seem to indicate you believe form is an emergent property which depends on the assembly of parts; i.e., such assembly is spontaneously produced under the law of the conservation of energy.
But where did the law of the conservation of energy come from? Is it, too, a spontaneously emergent property of the universe? Or it is the other way around: the universe is the manifestation of the law? It seems to me it can't be both. But if the latter, where did the law come from? I.e., what is its cause?