[extropy-chat] "Dead Time" of the Brain

[Heartland]

> Hi Heartland,
>
>  I think you present a very good and intuitive argument. However, I think John K 
> Clark may have been on to something when he said that subjectively *he* would 
> still feel alive. I can show this by using some math.
>
>  First, here are some basic parameters of a typical human brain:
>
>  Total Number of Neurons: ~100 Billion
>  Upper Limit on Firing Rate: ~1000 Hz (Thanks Martin and Stirling)
>  Planck Time Interval: ~ 10^ -43 Seconds
>
>  What a human would call the "present moment" in which they live represents a 
> span of Time. Time itself can be divided down to a very small interval, at least 
> as small as a single Planck Interval. Therefore, even if the firing of all the 
> neurons occurred at different, uniformly staggered times, there is a period 
> between the firings of any two (arbitrarily chosen) neurons which represents the 
> passage of a substantial number of Planck Intervals. In essence, what this means 
> is that a normal, functioning brain is actually continually alternating between a 
> functional and a completely non-functional state (like "on" and "off").


That's actually a very interesting perspective. However, what David Masten has 
already pointed out is true which is that you can't conclude that mind process 
*stops* simply because you choose to view it inside Planck Intervals. If we were to 
choose to view reality just inside Planck Intervals then we would also be forced to 
conclude that no process can ever exist.

Mind process is an *activity* of matter in space and time which is measured in 
longer time frames than Planck Intervals. But the main point is that at no time 
during execution of the process the activity of the process stops. Even during 
Planck Intervals matter that implements mind carries potential energy that will 
power a transition from one mind state to the next. In other words, mind process 
exists even during Planck Intervals. On the other hand, when mind stops, there 
exists a point in time when there is no force that can transfer one mind state to 
the next, meaning that the previous instance of that process has run its course. 
That point in time is the time of death.

S.