Thoughts on thoughts

[dhampyresa]

A story I am currently experiencing posits that scanning a person's brain is enough -- modulo computer code -- to upload them into the cloud.

But is it really?

I'm not talking about a soul or the golem's divine breath of life or anything on a metaphysical level. I'm talking on a purely physical level: is the brain the only part of us that thinks?

If my spinal chord can wrench my hand away from a hot stove, is that not thinking? No, seriously. What counts as thinking?

I think (hardy har har) this is not the line of questionning the story wants me to go down, but it's where I am, and I'm really curious what everyone else thinks?


I trying out the construction "story experiencing" as an alternative to "media consumption", because I hate the passivity and destruction implied by consumption. Would also welcome opinions on this.

Comments

[eller]

It's mostly the microbiome that does stuff, but also the enteric nervous system... In mysterious ways... But, apparently, it really influences cognition.
For example, look at this: https://www.nature.com/articles/518S13a
Unfortunately, the real pathways of how exactly this works are... not all that well understood (yet). We're really at the level of "uh, something is happening there". XD

[mildred_of_midgard]

This. This is what I was referring to in my comment with "microbiome."

I wish I weren't so pressed for time rn, it's a topic of great interest to me, and I'd love to go into more depth!