Magic mushrooms

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JimC
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Re: Magic mushrooms

Post by JimC » Sun Oct 22, 2017 10:31 pm

Can they simulate a gin-sozzled brain?
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Re: Magic mushrooms

Post by Sean Hayden » Sun Oct 22, 2017 11:26 pm

Brian Peacock wrote:Pretty cool.

But you do know that you're the simulation don't you?
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Re: Magic mushrooms

Post by Sean Hayden » Sun Oct 22, 2017 11:26 pm


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Re: Magic mushrooms

Post by DRSB » Mon Oct 23, 2017 5:33 am

Sean Hayden wrote:Maybe not. But I would think that similarities between us and other animals would allow a reasonable study of the evolution of consciousness; just like the various versions of the eye allow us to study its evolution. :dunno: An even more exciting prospect might be to use brain simulations. Have you heard of the Blue Brain project?
The Blue Brain Project is an attempt to reverse engineer the human brain and recreate it at the cellular level inside a computer simulation.
--how cool is that, eh?
Cool project!
Studying the brain though is one thing, studying the mind is another. The mind is what the brain does but it is still a different subject matter and leaves no traces. In this cave I was in Armenia, Areni 1, they found a piece of brain matter they claim to be 6000 years old and usable for analysis. Now, this is fascinating!
The oldest known human brain was found in Armenia. The unique find was discovered by Armenian archaeologists during excavations in the cave Areni-1 or, as it is also called, the “Bird Cave” in the southwest Armenia.
http://allinnet.info/interesting/the-ol ... e-armenia/

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Re: Magic mushrooms

Post by Sean Hayden » Mon Oct 23, 2017 3:38 pm

I don't think I agree with all of that. Focusing on recreating the brain: it seems to me that if you can replicate the brain, and your replication performs a task that we would consider to belong to the domain of the mind, then you have access in that replication to meaningful explanations about the mind. A real replication would not be just a simulation of functionality, unless of course there is something more to consciousness than the stuff of brains, or if it is impossible to replicate precisely enough cellular function without biological material.

In trying to come up with a counter statement to your
Studying the brain though is one thing, studying the mind is another. The mind is what the brain does but it is still a different subject matter and leaves no traces.
I kept thinking, we are less conscious than we suppose, not more!

--//--

Awesome find! But I believe it's not a brain fragment, but the whole enchilada of the Homer Simpsabilis, depicted here in the now famous cave painting: "One whom all laid hands on", A scene which has lead many scholars to believe he was considered a god by some of our ancestors.
homer.jpg

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Re: Magic mushrooms

Post by cronus » Mon Oct 23, 2017 4:09 pm

Brain is complicated, like the universe, and man has access to rudimentary simplifications of both through his mind. I'd rather be the brain.
What will the world be like after its ruler is removed?

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Re: Magic mushrooms

Post by Brian Peacock » Mon Oct 23, 2017 7:33 pm

Brian is complicated, like the universe.
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Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Re: Magic mushrooms

Post by Sean Hayden » Mon Oct 23, 2017 8:04 pm

I'd rather be the Brian.
...put that on a shirt. :biggrin:

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Re: Magic mushrooms

Post by Brian Peacock » Mon Oct 23, 2017 10:47 pm

b-shirt.png
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Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Re: Magic mushrooms

Post by JimC » Mon Oct 23, 2017 10:53 pm

Always nice when you get your druthers... :tea:
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Re: Magic mushrooms

Post by Hermit » Tue Oct 24, 2017 1:43 am

Sean Hayden wrote:I don't think I agree with all of that. Focusing on recreating the brain: it seems to me that if you can replicate the brain, and your replication performs a task that we would consider to belong to the domain of the mind, then you have access in that replication to meaningful explanations about the mind. A real replication would not be just a simulation of functionality, unless of course there is something more to consciousness than the stuff of brains, or if it is impossible to replicate precisely enough cellular function without biological material.
In other words, If we can replicate the mind we can replicate the mind. Well. Yes. This is irrefutably so.

The question is: can we do that? As far as functionality is concerned once we have a chip with enough transistors to emulate the billions of neurons and synapses and run a massively parallel operating system in it, we should be able to emulate the wetware version of the brain. We'll probably even get to the stage where the artificial brain will function better than the biological one.

Running a software program is not all there is to the human brain, though. We also have intentionality. We can always program a computer to pursue a particular task, but until such a computer gets the urge to paint a picture, develops a curiosity about why cats purr, or simply gets awestruck by an aria without needing a nudge by its software and hardware designers we are just looking at a very well crafted simulacrum of the real thing.

Note: I am playing the devil's advocate here.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops. - Stephen J. Gould

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Re: Magic mushrooms

Post by Brian Peacock » Tue Oct 24, 2017 2:07 am

We also have the brain monitoring and regulating the endocrine, circulation, respiratory, systems as well as managing perceptual, environmental and positional modelling, etc etc. We like to think that that bit of the brain that lets us talk to ourselves and have ideas and shit is what a brain is all about - but that part is just the cherry on top of the icing on the top of the cake. The brain cake.
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There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."

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Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Re: Magic mushrooms

Post by Sean Hayden » Tue Oct 24, 2017 4:05 am

Model the old brain too. Have I just intimated that Mozart may have pursued his passion as a result of a peculiar configuration between the higher functions and a primitive impulse to eat, fuck, or shit? :hehe:
Note: I am playing the devil's advocate here.
That's alright, I'm just bullshitting. :biggrin:

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Re: Magic mushrooms

Post by DRSB » Tue Oct 24, 2017 6:03 am

It is the mind that writes symphonies, not the brain.

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Re: Magic mushrooms

Post by Hermit » Tue Oct 24, 2017 8:22 am

DRSB wrote:It is the mind that writes symphonies, not the brain.
99% wrong :mrgreen:

Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration. - Thomas Edison

There is no evidence for or against the possibility whether a synthetic brain of the same size as a human one will be capable of inspiration, intentionality or whatever you regard as exclusive to the human mind. Emergence is certainly not exclusive to it.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops. - Stephen J. Gould

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