Hello, sorry I didn't reply sooner, I have been thinking
about the questions you replied with:
Do you find it as easy to think of the mind as a machine as you do to
think of the body as a machine? When you choose to do something, is it
because you are mechanically compelled to do it? If not, what is the
cause of your choice, and how is it related to the machinery?
Yes, I think our brains are analogous to computers in that
we reach logical conclusions from the information available
(knowledge, past experience etc.). However,the 'circuits'
in are brains are a lot less organised so there are many
more different pathways arising from the same input. I
think of this in a similar way to the mutations produced
with genetic replication. I can always give a reason for my
actions even if it is not a good reason from someone else's
point of view.
In other words, besides the fact that (for some unknown reason, and in
some unknown way), some (why just some? which? why not all? or none?)
brain activity FEELS like something when it happens, it also has a
"purpose" (but why? and whose purpose?).
The ultimate purpose is to survive, evrything must learn,
adopt and react in order to do this. Could the level of
feeling differ? Like pain is an continuation of sensory
systems. If there is not a lot of stimulus we do not have
much feeling.
PS. I have no objections to this being posted to the class.
----------------------
Alison King
awk198@soton.ac.uk
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