The Brain & Consciousness - Merely Mechanics?

Started by gomtuu77, July 03, 2016, 07:38:44 PM

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gomtuu77

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." - C.S. Lewis, Is Theology Poetry? -

Hakurei Reimu

Not really. Hydrocephalus doesn't actually erode the brain â€" the cerebrospinal fluid is not corrosive (quite the opposite). If it occurs slowly enough, the brain adapts (as it is wont to do), and there is quite a bit of redundancy in the brain. The erroneous premise proposed by the paper assumes that this margin of error is grossly violated by this "90% missing" figure â€" we don't really know what the lower threshold for consciousness is. People have gotten by with half of their brain missing (hemispherectomies), and if it occurs early enough (early childhood), they live normal lives.

Note also that while the civil servant is not impaired, he is also not a genius (IQ 75). This indicates that while he is normal, he may be operating at or near the limit of his redundancy.
Warning: Don't Tease The Miko!
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Spinny Miko Avatar shamelessly ripped off from Iosys' Neko Miko Reimu

aitm

A humans desire to live is exceeded only by their willingness to die for another. Even god cannot equal this magnificent sacrifice. No god has the right to judge them.-first tenant of the Panotheust

Baruch

#3
There was a Victorian worker who got a steel construction rod put all the way thru his skull, and it didn't kill him.  That was one of the first big medical successes in neurology.  There are a lot of redundant neural paths, and we are still making new one's as adults, contrary to earlier dogma.  Look up Phineas Gage on YouTube.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Baruch

#4
Take a string of ones and zeros.  Does it have any meaning?  That is what code breakers do for a living.  How can you tell what flavor of pseudo-random sequence it is, man-made or nature-made or math-made.  And if man-made, what does it translate to.  Let us assume that it is math-made aka part of the output of an algorithm.  Let the string be the digits of Pi from position 1000-1010.  If you can match your binary string to that ... then the meaning of the string is ... part of the pseudo-random string we call Pi.  What if it is taken from the position 1010-1020?  Can you decode it?  A brain wave is a poly-dimensional analog signal.  A binary string in a computer is also an analog signal, with meaning ascribed by humans to the almost 0 volt and almost 5 volt levels.  But every voltage between and somewhat over 5 volt is traversed.  This is why ascribing a particular brain wave to ... I want a hamburger ... is hard, if not impossible.  Yet some ascribe that thought ... to a brainwave somehow ... though they can't actually show a line of reasoning from the wave to the thought ... just the coincidence when the wave is recorded when the patient speaks the thought.  And most thoughts are unconscious ... so to what part of that wave can we ascribe the thought in question?
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Mike Cl

Quote from: gomtuu77 on July 03, 2016, 07:38:44 PM
Here's an interesting article that does raise a few questions for the materialist.

http://qz.com/722614/a-civil-servant-missing-most-of-his-brain-challenges-our-most-basic-theories-of-consciousness/

In His Grip,

Gomtuu77
And none for the theist?  Of course not, for we all know that gwd done did it.  It must be fun for you living your life according to fictional rules.
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?<br />Then he is not omnipotent,<br />Is he able but not willing?<br />Then whence cometh evil?<br />Is he neither able or willing?<br />Then why call him god?

Baruch

Most fictional rules are called, statutory or regulatory law ;-(
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Flanker1Six

Quote from: Baruch on July 25, 2016, 07:27:20 PM
Most fictional rules are called, statutory or regulatory law ;-(

Not always.  Some are Employee Codes of Conduct and Ethics (pettiness and banality have no lower limits)  Like; "All employees will be treated with dignity and respect, and valued as contributing members of the team; none will be placed above others".   

The truthfulness of the statement is inversely proportional to the shinyness of the paper it's printed on.