-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Kim Jones Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2014 4:47 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: we are the narrators of our minds
> On 26 Jun 2014, at 5:17 pm, "'Chris de Morsella' via Everything List" <[email protected]> wrote: > > To speak of thinking should first answer what is thought? >>If you like. But you don't have to know what thought is to know how to think. But you knew I was going to say that. If we had to know what thought was before we could learn to think effectively there would be little point to getting out of bed in the morning. Asking this particular question won't improve the kind of thinking skills I am advertising. Perhaps, but knowing how we "think" and even more to the point who we "are" helps us understand what thought is; how it forms up within us; the dynamics of how it evolves; the processes on which it is based and how it becomes influenced and how our "focus" moves from here to there. It helps us in thinking to know we are networked intelligences, that we emerge from the vast crackling electro-chemical chatter box of the brain. It gives us a perspective on ourselves (we are but the tip of our being) that helps us understand the modality and mechanisms of thought itself. There is the eternal question of philosophy: "What is this?" And there is the more useful question of the strategic thinker: "What can we do with this?" Just the same, great post, Chris. I find myself happening to myself all the time, like you. We ARE our minds. So, it is a natural question to want to ask. >>Just the same, don't hold your breath expecting an answer any time soon. It's closely, dangerously closely related to the question: I believe, instead that we are on the cusp of discovering the algorithms of our minds operating within the wetware of our brains. It is both exhilarating and terrifying (the NSA and agencies of similar nature around the world (I am certain) are throwing grant money at this area of research) >>"What is life?" The answer to that would be a fuzzy gradient... is a virus alive? It cannot reproduce without first taking over a living host so it is missing a key part of what we understand as being alive. What about all the stretches of hitchhiker DNA seemingly common across multitudes of distinct life forms (as far as I know) that has no discernable function for the host life form other than its own self replication. Would parasitical DNA, successfully replicating itself within the DNA of a host being across eons of time be a form of life? Is AI life? What about the self-replicating and also evolving electrically charged dust grains that appear to be evolving in the plasma environment of dusty places in space (such as in the rings of Saturn).... and that might exist in unfathomable numbers within interstellar dust clouds. Or, better still: "What is a soul?" If there is a soul... we sense (or perhaps would like to believe) that we are imbued with soul, but is this an illusion? Cheers, Chris I enjoy immensely thinking about these things too and reading the musings of others about it. Kim -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
