The Empty Brain?

[WmLambert]

This article is remarkable, because it assumes the brain does not act as a computer, and no one can find how or where the brain stores data. https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-e...ket-newtab

My take is that this approach is very egotistical. I saw no direction to the conjecture - just that past ideas have not borne out. However; I wonder about photographic memory. Reagan had it. Bush 43 had some of it. And Ted Cruz has a variation of that wherein audio memories are stored in much the same aspect. I also see overlaps in the research that has proved there is an electronic physical code that can be played into the human nervous system and directly into the brain that enables the blind to see, and the deaf to hear when lacking the necessary visual and audio nervous system connections to interpret it normally. With the correct coding the blind can see images similar to stadium scoreboards. We don't have all the side-bands yet, but the input produces the sight and sound to be understood. For Cruz to recall every word of what he heard in the past means it is in his brain somewhere, doesn't it?

The best I've heard is that the size of the word (size of the byte) used by the brain is enormous, and that while a computer needs to match words bit by bit to 8, 16, 32, or larger byte-size to use that in algorithms, the brain uses an enormously larger word size, and doesn't need to match perfectly to grab the data to be used. Sort of like using a crossword dictionary with similar words linked, rather than exact word matching like a dictionary or thesaurus.

[Ron Lambert]

I think I should offer an idea that is philosophical but logical, and deserves to be considered as an alternative to the inherently materialistically limited concept that seems to be the rule of what most people seem to be thinking about when considering the brain/mind. Most people, I think, would admit in candid moments that there is more to the mind than the physical working of a computer-like organ. Anyone who possesses consciousness has something no amount of transistors and capacitors and resistors can produce. In other words, I am saying that we all know intuitively that there is more to the mind than just the brain--despite the close tie that manifestly exists between the brain and the mind (so that for instance electrical stimulus of certain regions of the brain can elicit memories, even long forgotten ones).

I believe that humans are not exclusively physical beings, despite our material bodies and brains. I believe we are also spiritual beings--entities made of spirit. Spirit is hard to define. It is neither matter nor energy, yet is one of the basic components of existence. The testimony of God recorded in the Bible is that God Himself is a spirit, and when He decided to create similar beings with which He could fellowship, the first such intelligent beings were also spirits, the beings we call angels. (See John 4:24; Hebrews 1:7.) If this is true, then it implies that mind itself, with all its thoughts and memories and awarenesses, can exist independently of physical brains or bodies.

This then would also logically imply that human minds also can consist of the same sort of spirit-minds, so that thought, awareness, memories, can be stored in a spirit that possesses infinite capacity. You can never fill up your mind.

Now, since humans are a duality where spirit and matter are combined, this means that the brain--and to an extent the whole body--are primarily modem-like or router-like conduits, effectively interfaces to the spirit of the mind. Memories are not stored in the brain, but in the spirit of the mind; the brain is merely a very detailed interface with the spirit of the mind.

We interact with the physical universe, even though we are inherently beyond it. But we can die, and all our thoughts perish (according to what the Bible teaches, even if most religions embrace pagan teachings about natural immortality). Yet God, who Himself IS existence and the Source of all life, remembers us, and can return us to conscious life whenever He wants. This is His promise of resurrection for all the dead, which is one of the main promises of the Biblical Christian faith.

If I might digress for a moment: It is actually desirable that death to all of us will seem like a dreamless sleep in which we are not conscious of the passage of time. (See Psalms 146:4; Ecclesiastes 9:10; Psalms 6:5; John 11:11-14.) How could we really be happy in Heaven if we have to look down and behold the suffering of our loved ones? After we die, it is only an instant later, "in the twinkling of an eye" (1 Corinthians 15:52) that we become aware again of life and the passage of time. We close our eyes in sleep, and open our eyes to see God in what seems like the next moment after death. We will find that our bodies have been remade. Those judged to have placed their trust in God and sided with Him in the ways He deems to have counted, are promised that they will be raised with perfect bodies (ibid. v. 53), fully in harmony with God's original design, and are actually immortal, never again to die (ibid, v. 54). Since our spirits are the same, it is our real, original selves who live again. We are not just copies with duplicate memories, but are the actual persons who lived before. Those found not to have desired fellowship with God, will be raised with most of the physical defects they died with. They will be shown their final judgment, so that every question in every mind will be fully answered about the rightness of God's judgment. God Himself will also be judged by this, so that every intelligent being in the universe will be satisfied that God is the One who is Righteous and truly Good. This is the way that God will ensure that sin will never arise again.

Back to the brain: It is obvious then that what affects the brain or the body, will also affect the mind, which is the real importance to us of proper diet and healthy lifestyle. The good thing is that limitations of the brain or body do not finally limit the mind. Furthermore, anyone regardless of their physical endowments at birth, do have capacity for development and improvement of their minds. Even someone say who is born with Downs' Syndrome, can still be a good person. So it is proper and desirable to seek to improve the lot in life of anyone who suffers from challenges. This is the exact opposite of evolutionary thinking, which would judge anyone with deficits of any kind to be unworthy of life. Anyone who believes we as a society should heal the halt and minister to the afflicted, should reject evolution for its inherent sociopathic evil.