Knowledge & Illusion (for Romansh) (General)

by David Turell , Saturday, February 25, 2012, 23:25 (4462 days ago) @ romansh


> You say you seem to control your brain. Is it not really the other way round?-Well, that depends upon the source of counsciousness. I know, as well as everyone else, that we need a functional brain to support consciousness. I do not think that I am at the mercy of every astrocyte, glial cell or neuron in the brain. The autonomic system is an area not under discussion. I know how that runs things. The basis of mu questioning is consciousness. I consider it an emergent 'whatever'. I think it functions using the electromagnetic fields and the quantum effects, but I don't know that it tells me what to do. So I tell it what's on my 'mind'. As I write I am telling my fingers what to do. I'm not a great typist,and at my age my fingers are a little stiff at times, so I can't be very automatic about it. But there is not a voice in my head telling me what to do. I am telling myself the next step. I recognize that I am not free of the underlying blood flow, the synapses firing, the electro-chemical reactions. They are finite and fixed in the way they work, but that doesn't allow them to control me. -I don't see my brain bossing me around, telling me what to think. I am conditioned by my education, my background, my family input when I was younger, my present wife's delightful influence, etc. I am molded by all of that, but I am very aware of how my personality was shaped, what shaping I did. -I certainly don't buy all the Darwinistic crap that much of the animal instincts have come through to me as a human descendent and I am controlled by them. You probably didn't see our earlier discussions about M.J. Adler and 'The Difference of Man and the Difference It Makes' his seminal book from the 1960's. We are different in kind, not degree. I'm with him. I know Matt isn't.-Thoughts? I do appreciate your responses.