<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:'bookman old style', 'new york', times, serif;font-size:10pt"><div>I've already argued for thinking as an emergent property, but to assume that since the brain is made of mass that any of its properties must also have mass is absurd. Mass is a noun. Thinking is a verb.</div><div><br></div><div>The brain is greyish. Greyish does not have mass.</div><div style="font-family:bookman old style, new york, times, serif;font-size:10pt"><br><div style="font-family:bookman old style, new york, times, serif;font-size:10pt"><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><hr size="1"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> Gordon Swobe <gts_2000@yahoo.com><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> ExI chat list <extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Fri, February 26, 2010 12:54:54 PM<br><b><span
style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [ExI] Is the brain a digital computer?<br></font><br>
--- On Fri, 2/26/10, Christopher Luebcke <<a ymailto="mailto:cluebcke@yahoo.com" href="mailto:cluebcke@yahoo.com">cluebcke@yahoo.com</a>> wrote:<br><br>> Surely you're not claiming that thoughts are brain matter?<br><br>I do claim that conscious thoughts arise as high-level features of brain<br>matter, yes. The idea seems odd only because we don't yet understand <br>the mechanism.<br><br>I see no alternative aside from dualism.<br><br>In answer to Dan's post:<br><br>Dualism is not ruled out a priori, but as you probably know it leads to <br>serious problems. For example if mental phenomena have a reality distinct <br>from material phenomena then by what causal mechanism does the mental <br>realm affect the material realm? What sort of magic happens when, as a <br>result of your mental act of wanting to raise your arm, your arm rises? <br><br>By modern standards, at least, Descartes failed to provide a plausible <br>answer to this question of how
mind affects matter. He posited a theory <br>that the pineal gland in the brain acts as the intermediary. He considered <br>this endocrine gland the "seat of the soul". But I think it just secretes <br>melatonin.<br><br>-gts<br><br><br><br><br><br> <br>_______________________________________________<br>extropy-chat mailing list<br><a ymailto="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org" href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a><br><span><a target="_blank" href="http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat">http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat</a></span><br></div></div><div style="position:fixed"></div>
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