mind/body problem untangled

The so called Mind-Body Problem is an older than dust problem in Philosophy, so old in fact that to really understand it we should talk about it in very different terms than originally proposed. It is also a problem which tends to sound trivial at first mention, but becomes harder and harder as we think further about it. Let’s put it like: how can an immaterial thing be produced from something material? There are things we know are “of the mind”: an idea, an information, an equation or even an opinion. And there are things we know are “of the material world”: a brain cell or a processor chip. But how can the later create the former? This is our circumstance:

the thinking machine

The (misguided) comparisons between brain and computer usually begin by stating that the brain is massively parallel, working into multiple threads of thought at the same time.

But it just isn’t.

The brain is not a massively parallel processor. It does not process more than one symbol-chain at the same time. The brain deals with only one thing at a time, and it can’t even vary this one thing: the brain is always dealing with the person’s immediate circumstance.

what the hell is an incentive?

As i was talking to my cousin Carlos (damned KDE apologists:-) he was on and on about “the incentives” of that and this, and i asked him exactly what the hell an incentive was, not as the word but i was getting the inkling that it was a central concept in economics (which is his formation) but his answer did not really go into my mind, i guess he gave an answer correct for an test in Economics 101 but definitely not to me it wasn’t, but anyway his general approach to the idea certainly gave me lots to think about, and it is still bouncing into my head, anyways. The thing is, today i decided to wikipedia it, i just wrote http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_incentive not really hoping for too much, but, well, you know, wikipedia “rulez absurd”, doesn’t it? So, look at that: an incentive is any factor that enables or motivates a given action. The “enables” there is so revealing! The incentive is not just, like, a bribe you pay to make the guy do what you want, but general (sometimes very general indeed, from what i get) circumstances that can propitiate a given outcome. Definitely a concept that can feed a flourish on ways of thinking… (Or shall we say incentive?) — Either way i definitely gotta dig more on that wikipage…

entretenue par le monde

Ah! Ça ne serait pas mal, ah mon dieu
Si j’étais, c’est faux, je sais
entretenue par le monde
L’Ethiopie c’est ainsi
Le Subaquistan c’est ainsi… (by Pato Fu)

People are always worrying so much about surviving that they can’t see the basic fact of survival: we get it for free!