<DIV>Hi Heartland,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Heartland wrote:</DIV> <DIV>"I don't agree with this assertion. Mind process is powered by energy and that <BR>energy is being conserved during ~10^29 Planck Intervals. It's like you throw a <BR>ball upwards. Just because a ball becomes still at the highest point doesn't mean <BR>that during this time frame the energy that will force the movement of the ball <BR>downwards disappears."</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Plenty of *non-mind* processes are also powered by energy. Energy exchange is not the exclusive property of a mind. The energy of a tomato is also conserved during ~10^29 Planck Intervals. I never claimed that any energy "disappears". Energy is no doubt a component of the mind, but energy is also a component of *any* piece of matter. However, there is plenty of evidence that the human mind will cease in the absence of neuronal electrical discharges (which occur roughly only once every 10^29 Planck Intervals,
in a normal brain), even while the life-support chemistry continues unabated. If you inject a syringe full of human neurotransmitters into a living tomato, the smart money says it is not going to become a mind. :-) Furthermore, you could theoretically "add" lots of extra neurotransmitters to the synaptic spaces of a medically deactivated human brain, and even with this new surplus the electrical discharges will not resume, until the patient revives by other means. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Heartland:</DIV> <DIV>"Besides, mind process necessarily consists of many consecutive brain states (any <BR>shorter chain of states would be just a non-mind process) each one taking longer <BR>than ~10^29 Planck Intervals. You can't declare mind process absent by considering <BR>arbitrary time frames like PI. My whole argument occurs in 4D, not 3D where t=0. <BR>Mind process is an *object in time*."</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>~10^29 Planck Intervals is *not* a
*single* "brain state". I've already explained that ~10^29 Planck Intervals represents a *span* of real time, in "motion". A *single* "brain state" would be represented by 1 Planck Interval... not ~10^29 of them. A physical *change* in the brain will occur within the passage of a only a few Planck Intervals. Therefore, a huge number of physical changes will occur within ~10^29 Planck Intervals. My argument has never been anything but "4-D".</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Best Wishes,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Jeffrey Herrlich <BR><BR><BR><B><I>Heartland <velvet977@hotmail.com></I></B> wrote:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">Jeffrey:<BR>"But as I said before, trajectory does not effect the functionality of any atom. <BR>Lets say I'm doing an open-skull surgery on a living, conscious human brain. I <BR>decide to remove a Carbon atom from a neuronal membrane. I
can then insert *any* <BR>Carbon atom from my handy supply of Carbon atoms. It won't effect the functionality <BR>of that membrane in the slightest bit. The trajectory of an atom is a *byproduct* <BR>of the atoms existence and function; it doesn't give that atom any special <BR>properties, none. Trajectory from the past doesn't "run" a mind, real-time atoms <BR>do."<BR><BR><BR>I think we've addressed this issue before. Trajectories "don't run the mind." I <BR>don't think I ever said that. What I said was that trajectories give an objective <BR>observer the ability to distinguish between instances. That's it. They are only <BR>measurements of location of matter, nothing else.<BR><BR>I'm not sure, but maybe you are confusing "trajectory" with "mind object". Perhaps <BR>a closer inspection of the definition of mind object I gave recently will be <BR>helpful. I said: "Mind object consists of all matter but only that matter which is <BR>presently and actively involved in energy
exchanges that produce the mind (e.g. <BR>electrons streaming down synapses). Brain object consists of all nonessential <BR>matter that merely "contains" that energy exchange process (e.g.<BR>atoms of brain tissue)."<BR><BR>So mind object consists of *only* that matter which is *presently and actively* <BR>involved in producing the mind. So, if you exchange one instance of matter for <BR>another, the old instance no longer makes up mind object and so, accordingly, <BR>trajectory of mind object no longer includes the trajectory of that old instance of <BR>matter.<BR><BR><BR>Jeffrey:<BR>"Consider this, Heartland. During ~10^29 Planck Intervals when no neurons are <BR>discharging, the "mind-process" is absent."<BR><BR><BR>I don't agree with this assertion. Mind process is powered by energy and that <BR>energy is being conserved during ~10^29 Planck Intervals. It's like you throw a <BR>ball upwards. Just because a ball becomes still at the highest point doesn't mean <BR>that
during this time frame the energy that will force the movement of the ball <BR>downwards disappears.<BR><BR>Besides, mind process necessarily consists of many consecutive brain states (any <BR>shorter chain of states would be just a non-mind process) each one taking longer <BR>than ~10^29 Planck Intervals. You can't declare mind process absent by considering <BR>arbitrary time frames like PI. My whole argument occurs in 4D, not 3D where t=0. <BR>Mind process is an *object in time*.<BR><BR>Finally, Jeffrey, let me end this response with a surprising and depressing <BR>thought. You have been correct. It occurred to me very recently that we are really <BR>dying; not constantly, but "from time to time." Funny thing is that I reluctantly <BR>reached this conclusion using completely different reasoning from yours, based <BR>instead on my own argument justifying the "death occurs when mind process stops" <BR>part (i.e., the remaining part of my argument you disagree with). We are
dying for <BR>a different reason but our present subjective experience is indeed a copy's <BR>illusion. I hate this.<BR><BR>S.<BR><BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>extropy-chat mailing list<BR>extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org<BR>http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat<BR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><p>
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