Dissociative Identity Disorder... and blindness

[Sriram]

On what basis are you presuming that 'mind' and 'brain' are different things?

O.

I have always maintained that mind and brain are like software and hardware. They depend on one another but are essentially different.

On what basis do you assume that the mind and brain are one and the same?!

[Outrider]

I have always maintained that mind and brain are like software and hardware. They depend on one another but are essentially different.

Ok, so they are components of a single system - brain is the hardware, software is what the brain is doing at the time.

On what basis do you assume that the mind and brain are one and the same?!

The strong evidence of brain activity correlating with our sense of 'mind' and the lack of any evidence for anything else. My view isn't that dissimilar to yours, but I'm curious: given that the programming of the software of 'mind' is performed by the physical routing of neural connections, and that the mind is therefore the expression of brain, how is it not the brain rewiring itself by feedback loops when neural connections are made?

O.

[Udayana]

So how does DID figure in this model? Multiple boot partitions?

[Dicky Underpants]

It's like homeopathy, water and its intrinsic controlling watermind are different. One is a mild mannered thing that makes you wet by instinct, the other has a memory and decides what paths it will take.

Love it! 

[Nearly Sane]

Love it! 

I thank you! My mother thanks you !  The watermind thanks you!

[Sriram]

Ok, so they are components of a single system - brain is the hardware, software is what the brain is doing at the time.

The strong evidence of brain activity correlating with our sense of 'mind' and the lack of any evidence for anything else. My view isn't that dissimilar to yours, but I'm curious: given that the programming of the software of 'mind' is performed by the physical routing of neural connections, and that the mind is therefore the expression of brain, how is it not the brain rewiring itself by feedback loops when neural connections are made?

O.

No...hardware and software are inter-dependent but independent entities. Software is not generated spontaneously in the hardware by the hardware. It is made independently by a user and made to work on a hardware platform. And it thereby influences the hardware to work in specific ways.

Similarly, the mind is an independent entity that uses the brain as a platform. It creates pathways and neural connections in the brain based on specific requirements.

[Bubbles]

No...hardware and software are inter-dependent but independent entities. Software is not generated spontaneously in the hardware by the hardware. It is made independently by a user and made to work on a hardware platform. And it thereby influences the hardware to work in specific ways.

Similarly, the mind is an independent entity that uses the brain as a platform. It creates pathways and neural connections in the brain based on specific requirements.

Software is dependant on hardware, without hardware it doesn't exist, in a meaningful way..

Microsoft word is of absolutely no use if you don't own a computer or something to run it on. It's just a useless disk that can't do anything, a series of impressions on a disk.

If you compare the brain to the computer and the mind with software then software doesn't exist without the computer.

When someone gets some brain digenerative disease, the mind starts to fail, until the person is gone.

It is the brain that writes the software, an imbalalence of chemicals in the brain can cause it to write software that is faulty ie  known as a psychosis.

If the mind was independant of the brain, it wouldn't happen like that.

I like the idea of the mind existing after death but if you use the brain/mind hardware/software  scenario I think it more favours the reliance of the mind on the physical brain.

[Sriram]

Software is dependant on hardware, without hardware it doesn't exist, in a meaningful way..

Microsoft word is of absolutely no use if you don't own a computer or something to run it on. It's just a useless disk that can't do anything, a series of impressions on a disk.

If you compare the brain to the computer and the mind with software then software doesn't exist without the computer.

When someone gets some brain digenerative disease, the mind starts to fail, until the person is gone.

*******************************************************************************
It is the brain that writes the software, an imbalalence of chemicals in the brain can cause it to write software that is faulty ie  known as a psychosis.

If the mind was independant of the brain, it wouldn't happen like that.

I like the idea of the mind existing after death but if you use the brain/mind hardware/software  scenario I think it more favours the reliance of the mind on the physical brain.

Your first four sentences are saying that software and hardware are interdependent....which is what I have also said.  Software and hardware can exist independently but need one another to function.

The second three sentences are about the brain creating the mind...which is your assumption. There is no proof for this.

[Bubbles]

Your first four sentences are saying that software and hardware are interdependent....which is what I have also said.  Software and hardware can exist independently but need one another to function.

The second three sentences are about the brain creating the mind...which is your assumption. There is no proof for this.

There isn't any proof that the mind exists outside the brain.

Because all experiences originate in someone's brain.

Software only exists because we have computers that will run it.

You can't run Microsoft word for a PC, on a Mac computer.

It's very specific.

Software is only a series of on and off switches that can only be read in a limited way

[Sriram]

There isn't any proof that the mind exists outside the brain.

Because all experiences originate in someone's brain.

Software only exists because we have computers that will run it.

You can't run Microsoft word for a PC, on a Mac computer.

It's very specific.

Software is only a series of on and off switches that can only be read in a limited way

All our internet messages are through the hardware. If anything goes wrong with the hardware we cannot send or receive messages.....that is no proof that only  hardware exists or that all software is somehow generated by the hardware itself.

[Outrider]

No...hardware and software are inter-dependent but independent entities. Software is not generated spontaneously in the hardware by the hardware.

Actually, that's pretty much exactly how artificial intelligences are designed to learn.

It is made independently by a user and made to work on a hardware platform. And it thereby influences the hardware to work in specific ways.

Which is how experience works on us - our experiences update the software, it's just that this software isn't rewritable magnetic patterns in a disc, it's hard-written neural links.

Similarly, the mind is an independent entity that uses the brain as a platform.

No it isn't, it's the subjective experience of the brain working.

It creates pathways and neural connections in the brain based on specific requirements.

It creates them in an automatic fashion based on how the current configuration responds to experience.

O.