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Jinn · 04-06-2011, 02:07 PM

No. We know where consciousness originates from, and we can stimulate it. We can even turn it off while leaving the rest of the brain running. A hot poker to that center and I'm nothing more than a flesh bag filled with some gooey fluid. Likewise, a loss of heart or circulatory function or severe head trauma does the same. I see no way that a consciousness manifested by neurons would be able to persist beyond the cell death of those same neurons.

The fundamental understanding of neuroscience is that neurons act both computationally and as storage. The very same cells that compute, store. You cannot think without memory, and you cannot store or retrieve memory without computation. Our brain is, by analogy, a computer where all the CPU has an enormous cache, and in order to any sort of CPU activity, it uses the cache itself to do the calculation. We have no 'hard drive', in the sense that we have non-volatile memory that can save a power-off. We "soft reboot" all the time, even sleep and hibernate. But if the power is completely cut, as in a computer, all non-persistent information is lost. For us, that's everything. The only thing that can persist beyond our death is our creations, things that survive our eventual brain death, and the 'memory' of us stored in other "soft-rebooted" human brains. Would you expect the running programs of a computer to stay around after a complete loss of power? Why would you think the brain was any different?

I do, however, believe that we will be able to 'transplant' consciousness to non human analogues and live persistently so long as those analogues are powered (if artificial) or alive (if biological).. some day, in the future.. if humanity survives and continues to advance our understanding of neuroscience, computation, and storage.

04-06-2011, 02:07 PM	#11 (permalink)
Jinn Lover - Protector - Teacher Location: Seattle, WA	No. We know where consciousness originates from, and we can stimulate it. We can even turn it off while leaving the rest of the brain running. A hot poker to that center and I'm nothing more than a flesh bag filled with some gooey fluid. Likewise, a loss of heart or circulatory function or severe head trauma does the same. I see no way that a consciousness manifested by neurons would be able to persist beyond the cell death of those same neurons. The fundamental understanding of neuroscience is that neurons act both computationally and as storage. The very same cells that compute, store. You cannot think without memory, and you cannot store or retrieve memory without computation. Our brain is, by analogy, a computer where all the CPU has an enormous cache, and in order to any sort of CPU activity, it uses the cache itself to do the calculation. We have no 'hard drive', in the sense that we have non-volatile memory that can save a power-off. We "soft reboot" all the time, even sleep and hibernate. But if the power is completely cut, as in a computer, all non-persistent information is lost. For us, that's everything. The only thing that can persist beyond our death is our creations, things that survive our eventual brain death, and the 'memory' of us stored in other "soft-rebooted" human brains. Would you expect the running programs of a computer to stay around after a complete loss of power? Why would you think the brain was any different? I do, however, believe that we will be able to 'transplant' consciousness to non human analogues and live persistently so long as those analogues are powered (if artificial) or alive (if biological).. some day, in the future.. if humanity survives and continues to advance our understanding of neuroscience, computation, and storage. __________________ "I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel Last edited by Jinn; 04-06-2011 at 02:13 PM..