[ExI] Is the brain a digital computer?

[Dan]

This is like arguing that the letter Z has a specific mass and then claiming anyone who disagrees is a dualist of some sort -- whether of property, of substance, or of whatever.

Regards,

Dan

----- Original Message ----
From: Gordon Swobe <gts_2000 at yahoo.com>
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Sent: Fri, February 26, 2010 5:06:33 PM
Subject: Re: [ExI] Is the brain a digital computer?

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

> I've already argued for thinking as an emergent property

Yes, and I liked your analogy. You argued that conscious thought arises as an emergent property like the surface tension of water. I've made similar analogies here in which I compared consciousness to the frozen state of water. I like your analogy but I like mine better: the brain enters a state of consciousness like water enters a state of solidity.

>, but to assume that since the brain is made of mass that any of its 
> properties must also have mass is absurd. 

I wonder now if you want to defend property dualism. 

I reject both substance and property dualism. On my view, at time t when the brain exists in conscious state s, the conscious thought at t exists in/as a particular configuration of brain matter. That configuration of brain matter at t has mass.

-gts