[ExI] Is the brain a digital computer?

[Mike Dougherty]

On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 5:01 PM, Gordon Swobe <gts_2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- On Tue, 2/23/10, Dave Sill <sparge at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Blood is tangible, mental phenomena are not. Of *course*
>> they're in different categories.
>
> You argue then for mind/matter dualism.
>
>> You can hold a pint of blood in your hand, but you can't
>> hold a pint of thought
>
> Again you argue for mind/matter dualism. The question of how to answer you has weighed heavily on my mind.
>
> If we want to call ourselves materialists (a noble motivation, I think) then it seems to me we must say that thoughts have mass. This does not mean however that one's brain becomes more massive when one has thoughts; it means only that one has thoughts by virtue of having a massive brain.

Then large animals are smarter than small animals?  See how stupid that is?

> If should seem obvious, for example, that thoughts don't exist in the absence of brain matter.

Playing devil's advocate here:  Suppose thoughts exist like radio
waves and brains are merely the antenna that tunes them in.  If there
is no radio present, do you really believe the radio signals stop
existing?

I'm not arguing for mind/matter dualism.  I'm just arguing for fun.