Do You Exist?

[Zippa D Doodah]

A fascinating issue of Time came out a couple of weeks ago. [I know, I know; I am behind on my bathroom reading ] It was all about the human brain. In one article Steven Pinker interviewed an array of his fellow materialists, getting their insight on the relationship of the brain and the mind. Several of the contributors (most notablly Daniel Denton) put forth the idea that "you" as a person do not actually exist. Whatever concsiousness you experience is nothing other than the result of firing neurons. There is no "you" sitting at the controls of your consciousness taking in all that the senses provide and reacting accordingly. No soul; no individual identity; just chemical reaction in the brain.

Nothing in the article was particularly new; the ideas put forth there have been around for years. I thought it was interesting to see it in a mass forum like time. Anyhow, it got me to thinking again. If there is no "me" aside from the biology of my brain, how am I to account for the choises I make? Or is that a moot point? What of love, hatred, joy, morality, beauty, pleasure, immorality, pain, etc etc? Do they exist? Do they matter?

To start, I do think there is much we have yet to learn about our brains, and how the brain and the mind connect and overlap. Yet such a minimalist view of identity (whether you are a religious person or not) seems too simple. Anybody else spend cold winter days thinking about such things?

 

[SetzKitten]

My brain hurts just reading this.

 

[AuntieM03]

My brain hurts just reading this.

I was just thinking that I am not smart enough to read this thread.

 

[lucas]

My brain hurts just reading this.

Me, too.

 

[Cool-Beans]

Cogito, ergo sum.

 

[DISUNC]

HUH????

I just pinched myself ...and yelled out OUCH! Does that count?

 

[oxfordcircus]

I wonder if that guy is married. Or if he has kids. They must feel special.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

I wonder if that guy is married. Or if he has kids. They must feel special.

I was thinking the same thing.

I should get a life maybe. Didn't mean to start a smartie-pants thread. I just get tired of reading "Yay Colts" and "Gay Marriage" threads. Thought I'd try something different. <--- I like this little guy

 

[PrincessKitty1]

The chair of the department I graduated from had her PhD in neuroscience and, coming out of her lectures, I always wondered if I was just a bundle of neurochemicals.

 

[ButchJohnson]

Sometimes I wonder.

Sometimes as life zooms by so fast i do feel like its all been one big dream though. I mean things that happened to me 25 years ago when I was a kid, that seems like a totally different lifetime/person.

I do think that we exist to some degree or another, but in what actual form/shape/dimension/universe, I'm not too sure about.

The only thing I'm totally sure about is that my Toyota SUV is single handedly causing mass global warming and I am the sole cause of why the icebergs will all melt 20 years from now.

And no I don't think about things like this at home, only when I'm bored at work and trying to kill time until 5 o'clock.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

Cogito, ergo sum.

The "materialists" say that doesn't cut it anymore. The "I" doesn't really exist.

 

[Oreo Cookie]

My brain hurts just reading this.

This brings me back to college Philosophy course. Do you exist? Are you circumscribed by the room, or is the room cirumscribed by you? My brain just shut down again!!

 

[poohandwendy]

I disagree with the idea of our not having an individual self/soul. I think the truth is that much of our existence CANNOT be explained by science and that is a source of frustration to people who need tangible answers for everything.

This is, in part, why I believe in God. We are much bigger than a physical presence, much bigger than something that can be taken apart, manipulated and explained.

If we do not exist, then nothing matters. This war doesn't matter, deaths and births are irrelevant. There is no reason for ending global warming, no reason for curing cancer, no reason to go to work, no reason to for anything. And obviously, no reason to even spend time considering our existence.

 

[sugarpie]

I don't exist - I'm a mom.

 

[Cool-Beans]

The "materialists" say that doesn't cut it anymore. The "I" doesn't really exist.

I thought about this a lot in college, when we studied the brain and the nervous system.

I came to the conclusion that it doesn't matter. I love my husband. If it is strands of DNA that created the big shoulders and blue eyes, and neurons firing a certain way in our brains that make me laugh at the things he said, and (possibly) pheromones that make me, um, you know , I love him.

And if half (or more) of that "love" is just the result of electrical activity in the Limbic System, I don't care. It feels good.

If he dies, the tears will be real enough, even if I know how they are produced.

So, I fall back on "Cogito, ergo sum."

You can go a little bonkers thinking about all this...I know I did. And it drove DH absolutely BATTY! I think he was much happier when we studied the heart and I started telling him to quit with the beer and chips.

 

[SwedishMeatball]

I just consulted my Magic 8 Ball and it said, "Don't count on it".

 

[officer tigger]

Since it's freezing cold outside and I have to work the mid-night shift tonight....I'm calling out sick because I don't exist.

 

[Sparx]

Its true. You exist because of neurons firing.That causes your existance. But at that point, you have to decide, what happens next? Thought would be pointless, and unnecessary if there was nothing but neurons causing us to react. There is too much individuality to say that we're slaves to our mind. Scholars wouldn't exist if that was true. We wouldn't have to learn. My neurons are equal to your neurons, yet I know things you don't and you know things I don't.

Humans are more than that.

Science is taking big steps in explaining the human brain, but we've not explained everything yet. I take a scientific view in things, but I can not explain your personality. I can't explain thought. I don't understand the human mind, nor do I pretend to, but there is just too much there...too much individuality to simply be a slave to our brains. We control our minds, not the other way around.

But this is a very interesting question.

 

[HOGFAN]

Well, my creditors certainly think I do.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

They need to lay off "The Matrix"....