"Touching a Nerve: The Self as Brain" by philosopher Patricia Churchland

[bennyboy]

The mechanics of how that information might be transmitted has a profound effect on that information - as above.

Information is just the mapping of data onto properties, i.e. it "piggybacks" on any medium. An mp3 file is always going to be an mp3 file, no matter what medium it is arranged in, or what properties it is encoded into.

Then we would be at a loss as to why the earth itself does not appear to have a "mind" - as much more information "flows" on the earth as a whole than will ever cross between our ears, wouldn;t you agree?

This is a semantic question as much as an existential one. Each of us has no singular existence outside a concept with our name attached to it-- the reality is that there are billions of neurons happily firing away based on simple input and output. So where is the thinking? It's in the cloud.

Insofar as the thinking of humans manifests at the level of unified behavior, you COULD say the Earth thinks. But that's not how we are used to thinking about thinking, so to speak.

You mean, as soon as the mechanics cease to be in place? Precisely.

That's fine, so long as it's understood that it is the mechanical PROCESS which matters, not the physical structure.

The only way magic enters in is if you drop it in. Is there anything magical about flight? Specific arrangements of matter can have very dramatic effects. What's strange about that, specifically?

Pretty different. All the other effects are objective. It is only mind which is subjective. Don't believe me? I'll show you a flying airplane. Then you show me your mind.