The mind

[Emanresu]

So the title got your attention I see. Well, I was wanting to ask all you people a question. How exactly does the mind work. How do we say words in our head, repeat sounds, remember smells. What chemicals cause it and how does it work exactly. Thanks in advance.

[Playfishpaste]

Very long LONG answer.

It's like asking how the world works. There's a lot of things involved. Several entire fields are dedicated to it, particularly neurology.

A good start would be Sam Wang's "welcome to your brain" or if you are rolling in dough, "principles of neuroscience" by Kandel.

A fellow forumer also recommended to me this: http://www.amazon.com/Psychoanalysis.../dp/8847003342 haven't picked it up yet but it sounds like it has some interesting current revelations in the fields.

Edit: If you ask some specific questions I could answer them in a briefer format, like "what causes this or that emotion" or "how are these types of thoughts processed".

[Emanresu]

Thank you. First, how do we speak in our minds. Second, how do emotions become so extreme it affects our health. Third, I have heard in my class at Harvard that one man, to prove a point, continued to tell himself that his right arm was useless and not there. He quit using it. Within a month he couldn't use it, it no longer responded. Of course he thought he could fix it, but he couldn't, tough luck. How is that possible. That's all for now.

[Ummon]

Wow. Your next request is "hand me the keys of heaven and give me your sister as a sexual slave" I guess.

But, to be extremely synthetic, the mind is a parallel computer, which is both slow and highly distributed. It works via progressive adjustments and resonances between its components, to produce specific outputs in a large variety of situations. It stores information in form of structure, be it the topology of neural circuits, the order of molecules, temporal sequences of releases of chemicals, etc. It may be other things as well.

[Imperator Romani]

I know your an atheist but anyway gonna have to throw out soul. It's a possibility.

[Phier]

I know your an atheist but anyway gonna have to throw out soul. It's a possibility.

Do animals have souls?

If not you might want to work on that explanation a bit.

[Ummon]

I know your an atheist but anyway gonna have to throw out soul. It's a possibility.

It is infact.

Do animals have souls?

If not you might want to work on that explanation a bit.

They do have an animal soul. We should enter the distinction between soul, mind and spirit, etc. Not a scientific issue.

[Imperator Romani]

That might be why we are smarter? Again just another guess.

[Phier]

That might be why we are smarter? Again just another guess.

So say retarded people have no soul?

[Avendiel]

I'm not sure saying 'soul' counts as an explanation of how the mind works. Even if there is a soul, you would have to say more about how it worked in order to actually explain anything and presumably it would be very complicated.

Just saying 'soul' is like saying 'magic'. Even if there were magic, you'd want to know how it worked (or at least, anyone would who wanted an explanation). Give me your thing about humours and ley lines or whatever so we can at least say you tried!

[Imperator Romani]

So say retarded people have no soul?

Ah, good point

[Georgy Zhukov]

That might be why we are smarter? Again just another guess.

We're smarter because our environment needed us to be more innovative and intelligent to survive.

I was also under the impression that why we have a 'mind' or a 'conscious' so to speak was yet unexplained by the trappings of science.

[jumong]

when humans started walking bipedal, their hands were free to start doing more complex tasks. in turn we start to become smarter and smarter until we are what we are today.

[Icewolf]

i read an article or something a long time ago about how language was speculated to have started

using the example i remember, 2 cavemen in a cave sleeping, one is in the middle of the cave, the other is near a wall, he is underneath and overhang

the wall caveman wakes up suddenly and whacks his head on the cave ceiling, the other caveman wakes up and sees what the wall caveman has done says "dop" or whatever, and points towards the ceiling, the wall caveman will now remember that "dop" means look out, or ceiling or whatever, and slowly they would add words for stuff like deer, water, fire, etc, etc.

[Ashtony]

Excellent question. I wish i knew. I do know that hardly anyone utilizes 100% of their brain capacity. Who knows what evolution or science will uptap in the future.

[Imperator Romani]

Don't we use a very small percent of our brain capacity?

[Avendiel]

Don't we use a very small percent of our brain capacity?

http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/10percent.asp

[Wilder]

I know this is the science forum, but I feel compelled to address the argument that Animals have no souls:





Anyway, from a more scientific perspective, what ever makes us tick, it is a mechanism shared by our relatives, animals, just somewhat more complex.

[Phier]

I know this is the science forum, but I feel compelled to address the argument that Animals have no souls:

I'd say its more of an argument that humans don't

[Wilder]

I'd say its more of an argument that humans don't

The argument could be made.


Whatever the mechanism, it is shared.