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

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Hi Heartland,

Thanks for your response. I think I may have stated my question poorly.

Instead of suggesting that cognition "reaches back into time", I should have

expressed it as a delay or lag period, between what the brain is processing/representing and 

the reality outside. Kind of similar to the time delay of light from a distant star,

and the true state of the star locally. But even when taking into account this brain lag period

, the outside stimulus (eg. a red light bulb) must be initiated by a single or a few neurons, which

then later propagate the signal to the next set of neurons and so on.

 

I would restate my question this way: How can a single, or a few activated neurons encode the entire

signal (eg. a red light bulb) before it can be propagated throughout the brain for more thorough 

processing? IOW, how can a red light bulb (or the "present moment") be fully encoded in the mind by only one or a few activated neurons

instead of first needing to activate an immense number of neurons (ie. an entire pathway of activation)? And after it has done so, how does 

the mind "recall" the activation pathway that has led to its current state?

Your answer certainly seems reasonable, Heartland. The only answer I had come up with seems a little more far-fetched:

some kind of simultaneous quantum computing.

Best Wishes,

Jeffrey Herrlich 

 

"Jeffrey wrote:  Can someone here explain what seems to me to be almost inexplicable? That conscious   experience exists even in light of the fact that at least 10^29 Planck Intervals   will elapse between any two neural firings? It seems almost as if cognition   "reaches back into time" in order to trace the whole pathway of activation.    The thing that exists during that multiple of Planck Interval is the collective and   directed "momentum" of matter that implements mind. That "momentum" is what makes   one brain state switch to the next which causes mind to arise. HTH."    "S."   


		
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