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]

Heh, good question! I don't really think the brain is enough to "upload" a personality, though. The rest of the body matters. A lot. Like... A lot of "thinking" is done by the gastrointestinal system, even. And don't forget about hormones... So, uh, I'm having difficulties with the whole concept of separating consciousness from physical body. I'm at, it's an interesting concept in a story, but not in a "oh, yeah, if technology evolves a bit, we'll do that" way.

[dhampyresa]

I'm really curious what you mean by "A lot of "thinking" is done by the gastrointestinal system, even."? flamingsword mentionned it too, but I think I was taking "appetites" in their comment as more literal than intended.

[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!