thoughts

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Post photo: Thoughts | © Stefan Keller on Pixabay 

It is well known that thinking takes place in the head, although it is repeatedly claimed that some people think with their stomach or even with their genitals. Some people even think that thinking is reserved only for homo sapiens. Still others assume that even man-made machines can (in the future) think.

But what is thinking anyway? I mean, first of all, a kind of subject is required, which means something like “Cogito ergo sum”. And in order to be able to do this, a kind of shell is required with which this subject can identify. And in order to be able to do this, there is still a need for an environment and senses with which the subject can recognize itself, differentiate itself from the environment and perceive it to some extent.

And so one can assume that this said thinking must take place in the shell, which is designed in whatever way. Nowadays it is assumed that the brain is at least the control center of thought, but without knowing whether it would be possible for a subject to think without a brain. I suspect that the first subjects in the history of development still got by without a brain and that all the “circuits” in the shell between the subject and the environment were capable of thinking.

And so I assume that the neurons in the brain, which are constantly connecting to each other, are an important part of thinking but not the entire thinking apparatus. Similar to the strings of an instrument, which are made to vibrate by stimuli and which are only noticeable in connection with a resonance body.

That's why I think that it's not the nerves or even the brain that thinks, but the entire subject made to vibrate. It is not the neuronal connections in the brain that think, but rather the vibrations of the subject itself that are based on them or are only amplified. So thoughts would be a kind of wave.

Which now leads to the assumption that thinking does not take place exclusively in one subject, but can also be accomplished by several subjects together - unintentionally, but also quite consciously. I think the term "swarm intelligence" fits quite well.

This could also explain why some thoughts are suddenly on everyone's lips. In analogy to genes, it is assumed that there are also memes that ensure such knowledge transfer. I personally like the wave idea a little better.

Which, quite logically, leads me to memory. And based on my previous train of thought, there is no such thing at all, at least not as an idea of ​​a "knowledge or thought storage", such as a kind of human hard drive. And the brain, no matter how many connections it has or no matter how big it is, is neither memory itself nor does it contain it.

If we think we are remembering, we simply repeat thought processes that we have already thought about and, depending on the stimuli and vibrations as well as the current constitution of our own subject, we come to similar results, our memories.

Which then begs the question, what happens to our thinking and our thoughts when our shell ceases to exist? Do others think our thoughts further? Like light, our thoughts radiate beyond our own subject into infinity — the wavelength becoming smaller and smaller and therefore less and less detectable, but the light itself never completely disappears. Do we even live on in these thoughts?

Addendum April 11, 2023

The article by is very interesting Oliver Wall in today's New York Times, also addressing the above subject, entitled "Can Intelligence Be Separated From the Body? – Some researchers question whether AI can be truly intelligent without a body to interact with and learn from the physical world.“ uttered.

This article is available to my readers free of charge.

"Philosophy, the only acceptable philosophy in the face of despair, would be an attempt to view all things as they appeared from the point of view of salvation. Knowledge has no light other than that which shines on the world from redemption: everything else is exhausted in the reconstruction and remains a piece of technology.

THEODOR W. ADORNO, MINIMA MORALIA (14th EDITION 2022 [1951]: 283)
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  • We find that not all natural phenomena can be technically or theoretically recorded. Philosophy is a good way to serious and solid scientific consideration.