[ExI] "Mechanical Mind"

[citta437 at aol.com]

 From Margaret Boden's book review these questions were asked posted on 
12-10-07:

" How do our brains generate consciousness? Are animals or newborn 
babies conscious? Can machines be conscious? If not, why not? How is 
free will possible, or creativity? How are the brain and mind 
different? What counts as a language?"

________________

I find it interesting that there was no mention about genetics or was 
it incorporated in neurobiological sciences but was not given equal 
emphasis   as in other fields of applied science?

In the first question on how do our brains generate consciousness is 
similar to how did life evolve from the elements of hydrogen, oxygen 
and carbon? The catalysts include the change in temperature and 
pressure to tilt the balance towards the formation of organic life as 
discovered by science in the field of cosmology, another field not 
mentioned in the review.

In the second quest-" are animals or newborn babies conscious?
My answer is yes based on the fact that animals and babies follow the 
genetic blue print incripted in their DNA. It was recently discovered 
that even some plants like bananas share some 9% of human's DNA.

3. Can machines be conscious? If not, why not?

Consciousness cannot be an automatic response as far as I know. The 
process arise in synergy with micro and macrolevels of interactions 
with the right conditions which exist in randomness. Some 
determinists/probabilists see free will and creativity as a fact of 
random events.

4.How are the brain and mind different? The mind is a behavior of the 
brain to interact with stimuli coming from inside and outside the 
sensing mechanism. It uses energy to think rationally depending on how 
it is genetically wired.

5. What counts as language? I read Steven Pinker's book about how the 
brain function in connection with language formation. { forgot the 
title} As I recall the gist of it is that language and memory are 
interconnected. Another recent discovery in neurobiology or neuronal 
functions is that memory cells are not concentrated merely in the brain 
but all over the human anatomy from the skin cells to other organ 
systems.
See how complex this mechanical mind which is dependent on other 
functions {specialized cells} to do it's job well.

In the long run human brain is analogous to cosmic evolution from 
extropic state/singularity to entropy.imho

Terry
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