Information and free will (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, October 05, 2011, 16:13 (4798 days ago) @ David Turell

Dhw: The ultimate subject of this discussion is whether we have a will/mind/identity that can exist independently of the material body.-DAVID: No.-DAVID: We each can make memories, can study courses and learn. All these parts of us go to various areas of the brain. Memory is hippocampus and also all over, perhaps somewhat holographic. But consciousness is something weird. Where is it in the brain? It is an emergent 'whatever'. And it ties together all the other attributes I listed [...]-Consciousness is the only unexplained phenomenon, and I think it leaves the dead brain to return to the UI.-In which case you believe that consciousness IS independent of the material body. But how can consciousness exist without being consciousness of something? When we lose it, we become unaware of ourselves and our surroundings, and so when we have it, it manifests itself through what we are and what we perceive. If my consciousness returns to a UI without "me", i.e. without every attribute that gives me my identity (including memory, will, reason, emotion), it might as well be a nothing. Consciousness without identity is incomprehensible and inconceivable to me.-I appreciate that you are explaining your beliefs, and I'm only trying to understand them, so I hope you won't lose patience with my questions, which are certainly not meant to be of the 'how many angels...' type!