Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Some Conclusions about Brain, Mind and Consciousness

The brain’s many organic processes most likely utilize quantum effects as well as classical ones. The classical elements include the physiology, chemistry and electro-dynamics of the brain. The quantum elements may include synaptic connections and large-scale, non-local coherence of brain functioning. The organization and dynamical functioning of these processes in networks and “mappings” – in the context of the shear complexity characteristic of the human brain – produces a tangled hierarchy that emerges as mind. Mind is non-conscious. Much mental processing goes on of which we are unaware. (We can be mindful about things that we remain unaware of at any particular moment.) Some of what mind contains may be/can be offered up to consciousness. The intersection of mind and consciousness produces self.

Socrates said: know thyself. Freud said: where It is, I shall be.

Consciousness itself is primary.

4 comments:

Where angels fear to tread said...

Fascinating !! I think we share common interests.

Perhaps consciousness is not individual & that there is only 1 "consciousness" that we download with our hardware (brain - mind), very much in the fashion that a TV or radio accesses a channel or frequency.

Unique nuances of the receiving apparatus (genetic or environmental factors) may produce a different quality of output.

I've looked at this from the perspective of the injured brain and how that alters personality sometimes radically and completely.

These positions may all just be tantamount to intellectual masturbation as there may never be enough data to support the theorem.

It's a branch of exploration left to Mystics. When convention gets involved it seems to produce a Timothy Leary or a RamDass who begin to occupy the fringe of society.

Your thoughts ?

Gerard Gallucci said...

I think we may be on the same track. I would suggest however that consciousness may be a property that adheres to everything but that depends on the "wetware" -- should there be any -- to become manifest. Humans have particularly sophisticated mind-brain complexes and thus we manifest individual consciousness of a self-aware kind.

Where angels fear to tread said...

Could you expand on "wetware". Sounds interesting.

Gerard Gallucci said...

I did not invent the term, which I have been seeing in sci-fi the past few years and it goes even farther back. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetware_%28brain%29) It means the organic systems that make us up, our physical body that is made mostly of water. In the case of the mind, it is the brain and nervous system. As seen as a counterpart to non-organic "hardware," it is the machine that our mind runs on.