[split] PORN

[Purple Rabbit]

No one said it ORIGINATES in the brain. You poke yourself in the finder with a sharp object or hang upsidedown and the sensors that sense this and tell your brain "you've been poked" or "hey! You're upsidedown!" This information transfer from one place to the next is just that. A transfer of information.

What you do about it is decided where?

Your nervous system is the carrier of information, it is a bundle of wires. It does not 'compute'. The links you provided do not suggest otherwise. If anyone can provide some scientific peer reviewed stuff that shows otherwise I'd be happy to see it.

Until then my contention is you are the one with the extra-ordinary claim. That nerves somehow calculate and compute and can make decisions. So it is you who is burdened to prove.

This is basic stuff. The brain is part of the nervous system. Basically it consists of a "bundle of wires", the same stuff that the rest of the nervous system is made of, neurons. Still the nervous system is capable of producing self awareness. Transformation of electric pulses (i.e. computation) begins much further down the nervous system than in the brain. And even the process of decision-making is not limited to the brain as the peer reviewed article shows. Your reaction shows that you haven't given it any serious attention. Why should I believe that you're happy to see evidence if you simply deny the evidence that is presented to you?

You also stubbornly fail to give any evidence for your claim that the self is restricted to the brain. So on face value there really is no basis for further dialogue here. But OK, I'll throw in a completely other approach to it since it seems you're struggling with the concept of a nervous system made up of neurons.

One post back you argued that the somatic markers just represent feedback and that it simply can be replaced by an artificial emulation of the somatic markers. Your argument seems to be that if a part of the nervous system can be emulated than that part cannot be the residence of the self. Well I argue that in essence you can replace any part of the nervous system in that way given enough time to reproduce every connection in the brain with an artificial one. So doing this would eradicate the self from the brain totally if we follow your reasoning. That you might emulate the somatic markers I don't dispute. That it helps your argument in anyway I do dispute.

Since you seem to acknowledge that decision-making is typically a trait that defines the self, the argument now is where does this decision making occur.

My evidence of such? The link you provided. It stated 'damage this part of the brain, affects decision making abilities'. There ya go.

If you cut yer head off you still retain the ability to make decisions. Not very long shure 'nuff, but you can make decisions.

I'd bet folks like Stephen Hawkins would agree. His physical body is a wreck. It's all fuked up and I would maintain for all its sensors they ain't workin' right. Seems to make decisions pretty well though.
Many folks with illnesses that rack the body but not the brain maintain quality decision making abilities. Those with ones that rack the brain but not the body (such as alheimers) seem to be the ones with a poorer decision making ability.

Please reread because you're missing the point that information gathering is part of decision making.