On Friday, March 8, 2019 at 2:24:53 PM UTC+5:30, archytas wrote: > Neuroscience has already begun to tell us that we are not the > kind of creatures we thought we were; that some of our best-loved everyday > assumptions about our selves are misplaced. > Many of our social interactions are based on two such cherished concepts. > The first is solidity: the idea that we have > diamond minds, that our personalities and memories, once formed, change > slowly, > if at all. The second is free will: the > idea that we control, and can therefore be responsible for, at least some of > our actions … > > > With respect to brains, however, the assumption of solidity > is simply incorrect, Brains change all the time: everything you perceive, > every > stimulus received by your senses changes your brain, (Turner 2017: 155 – 156) > > > > > > Brains are organised so that any given neuron is activated (fires > off signals) in response to the inputs it receives. However, those inputs do > not carry > information about entire objects, but about aspects of things in the world: > colour, > sound, movement; physical feel. In other > words, an individual neuron does not respond to, and thereby in the brain’s > language represent, an ‘object’, but one or more features … Representing an > entire object, such as a tiger, requires the simultaneous activation of a > group > of neurons, often in different areas of the cortex: some will respond to the > animal’s colour, some to stripes. Some to roaring noises, and some to the > signals > from subcortical areas of the brain which indicate that the body is now going > into a high state of alert. (Turner 2017: 183) > > > The above is from Kathleen Turner's book 'Brain Washing' - a standard for lay > people.
No matter how much we understand our bondage, the truth remains that we are doing everything and thus our will makes us accountable for all our acts. -- --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
