On Oct 3, 9:22 pm, Stathis Papaioannou <stath...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 11:56 AM, Craig Weinberg <whatsons...@gmail.com> wrote: > > We do see neurons firing in response to no other stimulation other > > than the subjects conscious attention and intention. It's not magic, > > it's how it actually works. It's how you are making sense of these > > words right now. You can have your neurons move a mouse around, either > > through your hand or directly through one of those scalp rigs. It's > > only magic if you arbitrarily deny the subjects observation of their > > own subjective behavior. > > The neurons are firing in my brain as I'm thinking, but if you could > go down to the microscopic level you would see that they are firing > due to the various physical factors that make neurons fire, eg. fluxes > of calcium and potassium caused by ion channels opening due to > neurotransmitter molecules binding to the receptors and changing their > conformation. If you take each neuron in the brain in turn at any > given time it will always be the case that it is doing what it is > doing due to these factors. You will never find a ligand-activated ion > channel opening in the absence of a ligand, for example. That would be > like a door opening in the absence of any force. Just because doors > and protein molecules are different sizes doesn't mean that one can do > magical things and the other not.
You will also never find a ligand activated ion channel that is associated with a particular subjective experience fire in the absence of that subjective experience (that would be a zombie, right?), so why privilege the pixels of the thing as the determining factor when the overall image is just as much dictating which pixels are lit and how brightly? Again, every time you mention magic it just means that you don't understand my point. Every time you mention it, I am going to give you the same response. I understand your position completely, but you are just throwing dirt clods in the general direction of mine while closing your eyes. Craig -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
