Whatever we call it- mind, character, soul- we like to think we possess something that is greater than the sum of our neurons and that "animates" us. A lot of mind, though, is turning out to be brain. A memory is a particular pattern of cellular changes on particular spots in our heads... It's a long way from not having enough serotonin to thinking the world is "stale, flat and unprofitable"; even further to writing a play about a man driven by that thought. That leaves a lot of mind room. Something is interpreting the clatter of neurological activity. But is this interpreter necessarily metaphysical and unembodied? Isn't it probably a number- an enormous number- of brain functions working in parallel?... The interpreter is convinced it's unmappable and invisible. "I'm your mind," it claims. "You can't parse me into dendrites and synapses." ...Often, then, it doesn't know what it's talking about. And when you decide its wrong, who or what is making that decision? A second, superior interpreter?Why stop at two? That's the problem with
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It's a long way from not having enough serotonin to thinking the world is "stale, flat and unprofitable"; even further to writing a play about a man driven by that thought. That leaves a lot of mind room. Something is interpreting the clatter of neurological activity.
But is this interpreter necessarily metaphysical and unembodied? Isn't it probably a number- an enormous number- of brain functions working in parallel?... The interpreter is convinced it's unmappable and invisible. "I'm your mind," it claims. "You can't parse me into dendrites and synapses."
...Often, then, it doesn't know what it's talking about. And when you decide its wrong, who or what is making that decision? A second, superior interpreter?Why stop at two? That's the problem with ( ... )
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