[ExI] Is the brain a digital computer?

[Gordon Swobe]

--- On Fri, 2/26/10, Christopher Luebcke <cluebcke at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Surely you're not claiming that thoughts are brain matter?

I do claim that conscious thoughts arise as high-level features of brain
matter, yes. The idea seems odd only because we don't yet understand 
the mechanism.

I see no alternative aside from dualism.

In answer to Dan's post:

Dualism is not ruled out a priori, but as you probably know it leads to 
serious problems. For example if mental phenomena have a reality distinct 
from material phenomena then by what causal mechanism does the mental 
realm affect the material realm? What sort of magic happens when, as a 
result of your mental act of wanting to raise your arm, your arm rises? 

By modern standards, at least, Descartes failed to provide a plausible 
answer to this question of how mind affects matter. He posited a theory 
that the pineal gland in the brain acts as the intermediary. He considered 
this endocrine gland the "seat of the soul". But I think it just secretes 
melatonin.

-gts