Brain complexity: whole brain vision mechanisms (Introduction)

by dhw, Tuesday, November 10, 2015, 18:39 (3301 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: What is the source of your God and his intelligence? “First cause” is the flabbiest of answers, as it simply means no cause.
DAVID: If you believe in a chain of cause and effect, there must be a first cause.

You left out my next sentence, which was that “I am happy to accept energy and matter as first cause, but not intelligence.” My objection is to your claim that somehow the magic formula of “first cause” is enough to explain intelligence.-DAVID: And the source of the instructions in the 'autonomous brain' is?
dhw: No, the autonomous "brain" IS the source of the instructions. Or would you say that when you write these posts, your own brain is GIVEN instructions what to write. If so, what is the source of those instructions? (I am not comparing cellular thought to human thought here. The analogy is with the process, not the substance.)

DAVID: The source is my control over my consciousness which allows free and logical thought, recognizing we have no idea how/why consciousness appears or how it works, per Nagel.-Perhaps I should have substituted “intelligence” for “brain”. We are both struggling with terminology here, but I don't think you will disagree if I say it is your intelligence that produces your ideas (or instructions what to write), and your intelligence includes your consciousness and your apparent control over your consciousness. It makes no sense to say that the source of what you write is control over your consciousness. Control may “allow for” but it doesn't supply thought. And since we have no idea how/why ANY thought processes in ANY organism appear or work - as per all of us, not just Nagel - my answer to your original question is that the source of the instructions is “intelligence” itself (whose source is unknown), both for you and for bacteria.