Introducing the brain: general (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, March 26, 2022, 16:42 (983 days ago) @ dhw

Memory formation

DAVID: You have totally twisted my analogy. The car is programmed for automatic action nd can drive autonomously as a result, by human input in the programming. God's input is in the autonomously acting cell. Perfect explanation of how I correctly use the word 'autonomously' in a different sense than you insisted upon.

dhw: The quote made no mention of a programme for “automatic” action, but I am quite happy with the second part of your analogy: “God’s input is in the autonomously acting cell.” Once he has “programmed” it (i.e. given it the intelligence) to act without his intervention, it acts without his intervention, i.e. he does not programme its actions but provides it with the intelligence to decide what to do and when to do it. Autonomy entails "the ability to make decisions by yourself without being controlled by anyone else" (Longman) - the exact opposite of obeying instructions.

Usual distortion of my analogy. The cell has the God-given ability to read and use His onboard instructions. That is exactly what a self-driving car does. Don't deny it!

DAVID: Cells do not have insight into future needs. Only designing minds do. Fully covered before.

dhw: And answered a hundred times: cells RESPOND to current needs. They don’t gaze into a crystal ball to forecast possible future needs. In some cases, their RESPONSE to current needs and conditions is what enables them actually to have a future. That process is called adaptation.

Yes, and adaptations are tiny-step responses only to the immediate need. Erectus and sapiens were prepared for enormous steps into the future

DAVID: The neurons have a full set of instructions.

dhw: To do what? Tell themselves to remember to use the mechanism your God gave them? Or instructions on how to tackle each and every problem that will arise for the rest of time?

DAVID: Just like the self-driving car.

dhw: At least a car will be limited to what cars can do. Imagine a programme that gives precise instructions on how all brains are to cope with every single situation in every context for the rest of life’s history! Do you really believe there could be such a programme?

Somehow our 315,000-year-old brains got us here.

Libet’s time gaps

DAVID: All I've done is present new explanations for Libet's time gap which Romansh and Matt used to tell us the brain runs us and there is no free will. Why are you looking for an argument? Have you forgotten the past discussions here?

dhw: It seems quite logical to me that there should be a tiny interval between the moment of contact and the brain’s awareness of it, so I don’t understand why it is so important. And I don’t see how that conveys the idea of the brain “knowing the future”. And I can see no connection at all between this purely chemical process and the subject of free will. I am not looking for an argument. I am asking you to explain something I don’t understand. You raised the subject, but if you can’t explain it, then let’s drop it.

All i wanted to show is the brain's timing gap is solved. Dropped.