Reading about cells makes me feel funny

[Roman]

I'm reading about cells. When I read stuff like "over 500 molecules pass through each of the 3000-4000 nuclear pores every second" I start thinking about how the human body, once thought to be inhabited by a mysterious and magical force called 'life', upon closer examination, shows us to be simply a series of incredibly complex chemical reactions.
But chemical reactions none-the-less, which may be duplicated and synthesized outside of the vesicles they once inhabited.

Then I begin to think about what's going on in my noggin as I scan the page to learn the mechanisms of metabolism and motor function that lets me read the page. It's a recursive thought that gives me the same funny gut sensation when looking at my subcutaneous flesh, or an accident victim smeared across the pavement..

A bizarre reflection on the physical self.

What happens when we read about the mechanistic mind, its mysteries unraveled and hardbound?

 

[Roman]

The funny feeling comes not from the anthropomorphized explanation- "nuclear lozalization signals are zipcodes!!"

No, it's that all those molecules interact as predictably and mundanely as baking soda and vinegar.

 

[spidergoat]

Ah ha, there is no self. It's a construction made by cells, a necessary illusion.

 

[Roman]

 

[IceAgeCivilizations]

Sure, that's why humans contemplate eternity.

 

[Roman]

Funny, then, the closer we examine ourselves, the less room we find for free will and soul.

 

[iceaura]

No, it's that all those molecules interact as predictably and mundanely as baking soda and vinegar

Looking at one end: According to the latest theory, no one can predict the location and velocity of a single electron on one of the atoms of one of the molecules of a single instance of one step of a reaction between baking soda and vinegar.

Looking at the other end: the patterns of the patterns of the patterns of the cellular reactions involved in the simplest mental events are several levels up in a hierarchy of dynamically stabilized non-linearly coupled reaction complexes sensitive to millionth-second differences between data streams of unpredictable origin.

The butterfly effect may not have much to do with actual weather, but it definitely sends the mind spinning.

Or, put more concretely, vinegar is as much of an illusion as the self, cause and effect as much a heuristic as willpower. There are no privileged illusions.

 

[Athelwulf]

Sure, that's why humans contemplate eternity.

Interesting how you deny the answers to eternal questions when they're right in front of you.

 

[CharonZ]

Funny, then, the closer we examine ourselves, the less room we find for free will and soul.

Most biologists dispute the existence of the latter, and quite a number at least of neurobiologists dispute the existence of the former.

 

[iceaura]

Most biologists dispute the existence of the latter, and quite a number at least of neurobiologists dispute the existence of the former.

Defective educations. Nature of the beast. You can't study everything.

 

[RoyLennigan]

Funny, then, the closer we examine ourselves, the less room we find for free will and soul.

We start to seperate things more and more to define them absolutely. But by defining absolutely, we forget the quantum ability for extraneous possibilities to actually occur, despite their very low probabilities. In other words, because we think we know exactly how it will occur, we leave no room for unknown variables. The human mind works best by visualizing an action completely before acting it out. Because we visualize an expected result, that result will occur more readily, either because of how our mind works, or because we will interpret the reaction as we predicted, not how it actually is.