Magical Realist
Valued Senior Member
On genes, memes, bemes, and conscious things
- Thread starter Magical Realist
- Start date
“The key question is, no matter how much you absorb of another person, can you have absorbed so much of them that when that primary brain perishes, you can feel that that person did not totally perish from the earth... because they live on in a 'second neural home'?... In the wake of a human being's death, what survives is a set of afterglows, some brighter and some dimmer, in the collective brains of those who were dearest to them... Though the primary brain has been eclipsed, there is, in those who remain... a collective corona that still glows.”
“What is an "I", and why are such things found (at least so far) only in association with, as poet Russell Edson once wonderfully phrased it, "teetering bulbs of dread and dream" -- that is, only in association with certain kinds of gooey lumps encased in hard protective shells mounted atop mobile pedestals that roam the world on pairs of slightly fuzzy, jointed stilts?”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
“What is an "I", and why are such things found (at least so far) only in association with, as poet Russell Edson once wonderfully phrased it, "teetering bulbs of dread and dream" -- that is, only in association with certain kinds of gooey lumps encased in hard protective shells mounted atop mobile pedestals that roam the world on pairs of slightly fuzzy, jointed stilts?”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Magical Realist
Valued Senior Member
Good quote. Have you read Hofstadter's "I Am A Strange Loop"..Came this close to buying it once then backed off. Was afraid it'd be over my head.
What about Bullshitemes?
It's the spreading of unsupportable ideas, with the addition of impressive jargon.
It's the spreading of unsupportable ideas, with the addition of impressive jargon.
I suppose this is similar to taking photos or videos of someone, who then dies. In some way, they are still alive in the figurative sense we can still get the neural feedback we felt when they were alive; they may seem like they are there with you.
Write4U
Valued Senior Member
Is it possible that these experiences are a result of the function of the "mirror neural network". Each of us stores his/her own "image", but our MNN allows us to experience an approximation of your stored image memory.
Why do we cringe when we see someone else get hurt? Why do we experience sympathetic pains. This is not metaphysical, it is symbolic and mathematical.
Why do we cringe when we see someone else get hurt? Why do we experience sympathetic pains. This is not metaphysical, it is symbolic and mathematical.
So when someone gets hurt its symbolic and mathematical ...
You have become detached from the Human experience , big time
Hence the making of video games that in the end have no real consequences for actions taken , by those who play them
Write4U
Valued Senior Member
So when someone gets hurt its symbolic and mathematical ...
You have become detached from the Human experience , big time
Hence the making of video games that in the end have no real consequences for actions taken , by those who play them
First I suggest you read what I write.
Second, no, the human experience is through the mirror neural network, the stored memories of mental and physical experiences which we use to recognize "events" and how to react to them (survival skill). It also establishes empathy, the special skill of sharing human experiences.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_neuron
elte
Valued Senior Member
The people still alive could benefit from the uploading of aspects of our minds to a computer, but I feel it is important to mention that the person who is the source of the information will never be conscious of him/her -self once his/her brain dies. This uploading process wouldn't be escaping death much, if any, more effectively than paintings keep Leonardo alive.