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

[The Avantguardian]

--- Heartland <velvet977 at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Instance is not a type. Activity is 
> not information. Mind is not a brain. Would it be
> really so evil if I asked you or 
> anyone else to think about these principles for a
> week, month or a year before 
> challenging the conclusions that logically derive
> from these principles?

I would tend to agree with you, Heartland. A person's
state of mind and subjective experience is colored and
enriched by the action of numerous factors that lay
outside of the brain. For example, constant action
potentials from nerve endings throughout the body and
hormonal stimulation from glands such as the gonads
and the adrenals. If you just took my memories
(information content) and loaded them onto a unix box,
the lifeless simulacrum of me you would obtain would
resemble the real me as much as a midi rendition of
Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" resembles the Los Angeles
Philharmonic Orchestra's version. 

Especially if you "mind captured" me on a bad day
which would presumably be the case in cryonics as few
people would volunteer to be frozen down in the midst
of having the time of their life. So the "me" that you
managed to recover would probably be in a pretty pissy
mood or perhaps even in great anguish. In fact,
without "happy hormones" to change my frame of mind, I
might be stuck in asshole mode permanently. Of course
for some people, that may not be a big change. ;)


     

Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"A human being is part of the whole called by us 'the universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening the circle of understanding and compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

-St. Einstein

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com