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Life is complex, we all get that. Let's focus a bit more, human beings, of all human life forms, is arguably the most complex one, having the only faculty of consciousness capable of complex language, ideas, architecture, composing orchestral pieces, feeling depressed, feel depressed about feeling depressed, writing novels, haikus, building a computer, cloning animals, brain studying itself, appreciating the sunset, and more.
This begs the question, and even impoverishes imagination if you really think hard about it, are all these things, art, architecture, the internet, religion, sociological theory, space rocket, Einstein's thought experiments, emotions, dance, self-reflection merely products of chemical and electrical impulses in the human brain?
To be more exact - is the mind, in all its complexity, physical, the is, the chemical and electric networks in the brain? What about morality, love, ideas, empathy, compassion, imagination? Are these mere byproducts of physiological processes that are in a way similar to the chemical and electrical impulses experienced by other animals?
What are your thoughts? Is the mind all physical?
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As far as we can tell, yes. Although, one hopes there is more to it than that.
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Is there supposed to be an alternative to "all physical"? Have yet to see any evidence for it.
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Your brain is all chemical and electricity. The mind is a type of phenomena that isn't physical.
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On July 01 2013 10:12 aksfjh wrote:
As far as we can tell, yes. Although, one hopes there is more to it than that.
Why? Why does one need anything more when what we have is already so wonderful?
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The way I've always viewed it, is that humans are simply biological computers. Scientific research and capabilities are slowly starting to merge those thoughts. Everything that we create on a computer is no more physical than what your computer body does.
Akin to The Last Question, I have to wonder if we become the civilization that plants the seed upon another planet and let those ingredients re-create life.
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On July 01 2013 10:13 SergioCQH wrote:Show nested quote +On July 01 2013 10:12 aksfjh wrote:
As far as we can tell, yes. Although, one hopes there is more to it than that. Why? Why does one need anything more when what we have is already so wonderful?
maybe for you.
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I don't understand what any of you are saying. Obviously your experiences aren't physical. We can't measure experiences, we can only measure their correlates.
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everything is physics (and physics is math)
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On July 01 2013 10:15 travis wrote:
I don't understand what any of you are saying. Obviously your experiences aren't physical. We can't measure experiences, we can only measure their correlates.
I think he's basically asking if you believe in a soul, or free will, or whatever other bullshit our ancestors came up with to explain consciousness.
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I'm positive it is, it's just so complex people start imagining it isn't. I expect that in time we will figure the brain out quite well. (probably decades or centuries)
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Yes the mind is all physical but you are mistaken about human beings having consciousness and not animals.
Unlike what's said by most philosophers who think that humans are superior to animals, animals have consciousness but to a different degree.
Just like when a child feels alive the animals might feel alive too. Some octopuses are extremely smart and can solve complex things. Monkeys can learn the sign language and express their emotions with it.
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Im attempting to use rhetoric to try to poke a hole in the way people think about this stuff. People are disturbingly materialistic.
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The brain is all "chemistry and electricity" like the internet is just a bunch of 0s and 1s.
On some simplistic level it's true, but once you dig into it, there's much more to it than just that.
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What happens when an anencephalic child is born with a large part of its brain missing? Even if he had a "soul" (if souls exist) that soul cannot substitute for the lack of a cerebral brain. The soul is about as useful to us and science as a deistic god.
If you damage the brain, you can affect the personality of the person. What does it mean when you say a kind "soul" or mean "soul"? Phineas Gage is an example of a person whose personality (or -soul) changed due to a physical change to his brain.
Could you change a soul by physically changing the brain? The soul is absurd, unnecessary, and irrelevant.
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I feel like this question is impossible to answer. It all comes down to your own beliefs on how you perceive a mind (including your own mind). Personally, this question is a bit too provocative and in depth for me to even consider.
It is these types of questions that we leave to philosophers  .
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EPT
