X-Message-Number: 22334
From: 
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 19:10:17 EDT
Subject: dualism, epiphenomena

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Scott Badger writes in part:

>Ettinger s notion of a
standing wave in the brain, the various states of
which constitute qualia ......... sounds like Dualism to me,
the mind-body split position I would not have expected
Dr. E to advocate. I, personally, hold that the mind
is  what the brain  does ; much like digestion is
what the stomach does.<

Certainly the mind is an aspect of the brain or its functions, but that alone 
doesn't tell us much. Qualia are material systems, or aspects of them, but 
the distinctiveness has yet to be characterized. 

And:

>Like consciousness
itself, qualia strike me as epiphenomenal side-effects
of normal brain processes. Consequently, if we can
accurately simulate a human brain with cognitive and
affective processes that can actually generate
consciousness, qualia should happen as a matter of
course.<

I don't want to get into a discussion of epiphenomena, or whether there are 
any such things, but certainly we have to consider our own subjective 

experiences as "normal." As to the last sentence above, I'm not quite sure what 
it 
means, and it needs to be reworked, I think.

Robert Ettinger


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