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Pastimes : Human Brain, The -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (376)	2/8/2014 4:10:39 PM
From: George Statham	1 Recommendation Recommended By Road Walker Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 935

You're in good company with Thoreau, Kant, Aristotle who all were famous walkers. I think the very speed needed for all the information processing would argue against the extra processing needed for awareness of function, active decision making, pondering, reflection. It is incredible to think about the complexity and speed of what's going on. I'm taking the Drugs and the Brain course on coursera.org for the 2nd time. It's been my favorite cousera course. One of the interesting tidbits in that course is that an infant is creating a million synapses per second up til about age 2. A very fundamental function from the recommended textbook is exocytosis. Vesicles in neurons move to the presynaptic terminal and dump their neurotransmitters into the synapse. So with all the speed of the electrochemical activity, here's a mechanical activity that's just as fast.

To: Road Walker who wrote (376)	2/9/2014 1:16:27 AM
From: koan	1 Recommendation Recommended By Road Walker Respond to of 935

<< Who is to say that parts of our subconscious don't have their own, very separate consciousness? As distinct and invisible to ourselves, as our consciousness is to each other? How could this six pounds of organic material make all those calculations and take those actions, in a few nanoseconds, without some form of its own, individual consciousness? >> The brain is probably a quantum computer, so that would answer how 6 lbs can handle so much complexity. The actual processes and configuration are still unknown. How can we know something so much smarter than we are. When I was young I took LSD three times. It took me to some place very profound. Not crazy, profound. I saw with a new clarity that was a whole new gear. I don't remember the state of mind, but I think I got a glimpse of what increased intelligence is about. And what sticks in my mind is that it was qualitative as well as quantitative. It was something I never experienced again. I think awareness can grow forever and what it sees is something we cannot even guess at, other than it is different than anything we know. One of the things about gods is that none of us could understand one and they certainly would have different realities than we do. I doubt they would have any of the same interests as we-lol.