John Page

Neat. If "Body" and "Mind" are both adjectives that describe aspects of the concept "Me", how do the "noun" and "verb" sense interact?

Cheers, John

John Page

Sammi:

How can I reconcile a non-physical idea being contained within a mind that is only physical? That's my question - how does this happen and what is the borderline between physical/non-physical?

Cheers, John

John Page

Ierrellus:

LOL! Good to be back. Been in Africa.

Could you expand on the organic dynamics comment? Perhaps border is the wrong word but can you describe a process that moves us from the realm of the physical body to the (physically-based) but abstract mind?

Cheers, John

WJ

Hi john!

I think that is a neat question:

"So, two people touching will have "mind phenomena" that appear to occupy the same physical space."

"Of course, one could say that the electromagnetic field surrounding the body is merely a side effect. Is this field part of the body or not?"

I must admit that the last part of the question is blowing my mind...you could have at least waited to pose that one later on in the week...
<img src="graemlins/notworthy.gif" border="0" alt="[Not Worthy]" />

walrus

Jamie_L

This is a lot like asking what is the border between a computer's hardware and its computations.

There's a whole bunch of hardware with a whole bunch of stuff happening on each piece. Each piece has a function, and carries out certain processes. While it makes sense to discuss the hardware and the computations as separate things, does it makes sense to ask "what is the boarder between them?" I don't think it does. If that question makes sense to someone else, please explain what the answer would be.

Jamie

John Page

Stop it - your praise is going to my head.... wait, no my mind...... er, no, actually my body plus its superimposition on the ether....

Cheers, John

John Page

Jamie:

How about the difference between hardware and software? Yes, the hardware carries out the computations but how does the hardware get its instructions? I wanted to keep away from the computer analogy but it is useful. Software (a set of instructions for the hardware) can be enabled in a number of different ways in a computer - hard-wired as in a timer chip, ASICs where you've developed the program and don't need it to be loaded every time, EPROMs which are like ASIC's but you can wipe them out and start again and so on to the way your computer loads a browser program from disk.

Irrespective of which method is used to "realize" the software, how would you say whether you were looking at hardware or software? This is my best approximation to the Mind/Body Border problem. What test would you apply?

Cheers, John

joshack

Why even use the word "mind?" If you mean consciousness, if you mean an idea, say that. "Mind" is an oft-reified term that has not been proven to exist. Choosing more precise terms may help to better define your question.

AtlanticCitySlave

Two things:


"There is nothing non-physical in this world otherwise it must be some sort of magic. (An idea may be non-physical, but it is works by the physical)."

-This is an obvious contradiction, unless you consider an "idea" to be "nothing". In order for nothing to be non-physical, then obviously nothing can be, including an idea/thought, regardless of how it works or is brought about.

In general, the problem to the overall discussion is that no one really knows, including me.

AtlanticCitySlave

"Why even use the word "mind?" If you mean consciousness, if you mean an idea, say that."

-The word "mind" often has consciousness and ideas under it's roof. Or, many just equate consciousness with mind. I'm not sure I see the big difficulty here.