Mind. Personality. Soul. Consciousness. Spirit.

These five things which account for the human experience are often seen as overlapping, or even interchangeable.

Boyd and I see them all as related … but quite separate.

For us, the first four are material and emergent properties of the brain and therefore completely within the scientific realm. In fact, in a previous episode (#10), we’ve given a scientific explanation for the human soul. In this episode, we look at some of the directions being taken by scientists to explain consciousness using materialistic mechanisms.

First, we explore in a bit of detail what “emergence” and “emergent properties” mean. Basically, these refer to relatively simple things obeying relatively simple rules to give rise to very surprising and complicated things which were never even hinted at within those simple components. Like a huge flock of starlings becoming a massive “sky-amoeba” … or 26 alphabetical letters becoming a Shakespearean sonnet … eight musical notes becoming Handel’s Messiah … a collection of circuits and software become an immersive virtual reality game … or artificial intelligence. Pretty amazing stuff!

With that foundation, we then look at how a few nerve cells, obeying a few simple rules of logic, can create interesting and relatively simple reflexes … but then multiplying that by billions and trillions to produce consciousness, mind, personality and soul.

This kind of discussion involves some pretty heady neurobiology, physics, informatics, and computer coding, but we’ve kept it at a very attainable level. Some scientists even bring in quantum physics to explain how the brain might act more like a parallel quantum supercomputer than the computers you find in your home or office which work with simple zeroes and ones. In fact, they even suggest this can explain how professional athletes can perform stupendous calculations within time-frames that completely defy normal physics, mathematics, and neurobiology … like hitting a ball hurled at them at over a hundred miles per hour … and seem to do this by sending quantum information forward through time!?

Oh, and that fifth element which is at the heart of what it means to be human … the immaterial spirit … well, that’s a topic for another day.

Your thoughts on this? Leave a comment below … stir the pot a little bit!

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