Mind is the brain?

[The Grand Nudger]

Neurons aren't really connected. The synaptic cleft, which is explicitly a separation between neurons, is important to the way they work.

Not really what I was referring to, but okay.

As for your "larger picture," it is still an illusion: it is the interactivity of many parts which you see as a single unit-- but it is still the a conglomeration of billions of tiny parts.

Right, it's a system. The larger picture was just a nod to chemistry and physics. Is it chemistry or physics that's an illusion?

The fact is that we are explicitly connected through the computer, and that the internet performs all the functions you mention in regard to computing.

Indeed we are, and there's a bigger gap between you and I than there is between connected nuerons, eh? The internet isn't a comp system, it's a network full of them. You could say "but it does x or y or z"..except you'd be wrong, some comp system that is connected does x y or z...you don't see that, though. Why would it matter in any case? If we chose to include all networks made of comp systems as a comp system...then what? Neither you nor I contest the fact that computation is involved in the internet, and neither of us has been given reason to think that the internet is or has mind regardless of whether we call it a comp system.

Billions of people are connected via the internet in a way not functionally different than what you say about the box under my desk, or the mass of neurons in my skull. The distinction is still too arbitrary-- I think it represents your existing view of seeing things, not an effort to see things on a more meaningful level.

We -are- connected in a way that's functionally similar (even without need of reference to the internet, just talking is functionally similar...as is using a brush to paint a picture). That's not all that surprising, we (both comps and ourselves) exist in the same world, same laws, same interactions. If we're trying to achieve a similar goal or function, and if we allow for plenty of wiggle room with phrases like not functionally different............then we'll find plenty of comparisons. This would be support for the comp mind position, wouldn't it?

The arbitrary bit is -still- silly, we're either talking about something specific or we aren't talking at all. I'm done trying to argue comp systems into existence, over the internet, computer to computer. I won't be offering any further elaboration in response to that.