Mark Nyquist

Wayfarer was asking about a one to one correspondence yesterday. I can give an analogy of something easy to understand that might point to how brains ...

I don't think I said brain states are the same as the content of thought. I would say brain state can have the ability (not always) to contain non-phy...

The way I break it down is neurons in large numbers holding mental content. Mental content would include everything. Language, math skills, your educa...

By your comment I would guess your are weighting language higher than you should. We have big brains that are very adaptive.

I read a little from John Archibald Wheeler and from what I got out of it the "it from bit" notion of information applies only to the very special cla...

I agree that information has specific content. Good point. And generic information is oxymoronic. I agree again. I am saying the polysemic use of the ...

information is brain state. Information DNA genetic information. Information Shannon information. Information quantum information. Information is non-...

So we deal with non-physicals. I think monism can handle that but it is worth a closer look or you will end up arguing for Dualism. Physical and non-p...

it seems that you are giving information multiple definitions for different things. Mind, Shannon, genetic, quantum. You discount the most useful func...

Something to consider about Monism is if it explains everything. There seems to be the principal of simple to complex and complex to simple...the full...

Have you or anyone come across Feynman diagrams showing forward and backward flowing time. My interpretation is physical existence has some duration r...

As Art48 started by pointing out, Monism is reductionist, or you can derive the complex from the simple. I would question your idea that information i...

I like that you brought up design. Some may not agree, but what is design, if not the manipulation of non-physicals? The thing itself does not yet exi...

I'm saying things that do not physically exist (like the past or future) can exist in our brains. Do you or others have an alternative. Physical exist...

It might be just word problems. For me the immaterial is something brains can assign parameters to but they don't exist other than as brain state.

Sorry for your confusion. Maybe I could explain it this way. Our brains do something like our hands would do to hold an imaginary tennis ball, or rubb...

Actually I get spread thin so just check in here mostly weekends so I miss a lot. I enjoy the back and forth.

I mostly just follow this forum.

Just interested if you have an occupation or training that gives you some insight on this issue?

my view is mental content is universally immaterial. If I'm physically in the presence of a physical object it would be contained in my brain as an im...

Maybe the issue you are raising is if the physical form of neuron configuration is all there is or is the subject matter of prime importance and the u...

Because they are immaterial. It's a reasonable development of physical monism that advances things beyond the physical present. Edit:I mean physically...

I said the immaterial IS supported by physical processes. The reasoning is because we contain immaterials such as past and future (that physically do ...

If you are a monist I think this could use a little more exploration. You are right in pointing out that abstract objects must be physically instantia...

I mostly agree with you on non material and immaterial being the same. Or it could be a matter of different definitions being used. Monism, materialis...

Since monism and theories of physical matter are being discussed, my question is how can our brains ability to perceive time be explained by physical ...

When we recall the past we are thinking about something that is physically nonexistent. So you could say our brains have the ability to contain non-ph...

If you think about a time line, with past present and future, and consider strict physical monism you should realize that only the present can be addr...

Thanks, Gnomon. Some of us have varying degrees of technical savvy depending on our circumstance. And for some us financial support is or is not a rea...

Okay,. Who is who is important.. I sometimes do a 180 like today. I'll look into your suggestions on images.

Your points are well taken and I will come back another day. Overall this is a well managed site and I really don't know who is who but you must be a ...

Just saying, that even on my mager cell phone plan, an occasional photograph wouldn't be an extravagance....what am I missing?

Thanks for the heads up, Banno. And to management...that is just shit. You can rebuttle of course... enlightening us.

Hi Banno, I'm lost. Not addressing you. Just wondering how to post photos on this forum... wouldn't that be progressive?

Something I remember about my undergrad macro economics class was that our professor was prohibited from answering certain questions about central ban...

I've found reading your own notes can be very enlightening. It's ok. I like the thought process on display.

Ha Ha, I only got to the marbles part....

In the physical world your three marbles in a box analogy can never exist so we are looking at past, present and future in terms of mental images that...

You are right. That's maybe why it seemed incomplete to me. It needs specific context.

I came across some notes on philosophy while house cleaning that read: "My notes, If an object exists physically then it is affected by physical matte...

So we do agree that ideas can be transfered brain to brain and no biological material is being transfered, right? That is a valid observation.

There is the logic that biology alone fails in any explanation of consciousness. We communicate ideas but no biology is transfered brain to brain in t...

I might personally be inclined to be a reductionist however that dead ends because everything in philosophy is in the category of mind. So pragmatism ...

Are you saying mind is separate from brain or a relation of brain -> mind -> information? Why not computer -> mind -> information? Try stating what yo...

Mind/body should be examined together with the 'what is information' question.. Brain information is in the brain only. Genetic information...I don't ...

I'm not convinced that psychology does describe consciousness or that it is a final authority or even a science. If I stick to what I can observe then...

In theory you could be able to to describe consciousness biologically but we can't now and may never. Sometimes, with difficult problems a method used...

I still see a problem that everything we experience can't be explained by biology or even the broader category of physical matter. What is information...

Actually language itself such as the English language we share is an example of a hierarchy of rule making our brains support that goes beyond biology...

You use the word ideas and other words associated with mind so I suspect you subconsciously do think in terms of mind/body as most of us do. But I agr...