4 ms·

The human brain's electro-chemical makeup and its response to stimulus, both from the other organs and through the external sensory organs, are the reasons we a

The human brain's electro-chemical makeup and its response to stimulus, both from the other organs and through the external sensory organs, are the reasons we act the way we do. Like the Human Genome project before it, this mystery can be solved with large amounts of personnel, money and time. Do not complain that it's complex (it is, we know, the sooner we commit the appropriate resources the sooner we'll be finished). [And yes, I am doing something about it - I'm a returned to school STEM-neuro student]

goldenkey 9y ago
You've got it all figured out, don't you? How does figuring out how computation works somehow eliminate all the variables in a multidimensional turing complete system? What you claim is so simple is equivalent to solving the halting problem.
s73ver 9y ago
No. Do not do that. The second that the cause/effect relationship is understood down to a neuron level like that, advertisers will abuse that to make things even more effective.
- wutbrodo 9y ago
  This is truly peak HN. No matter how philosophical or universal the topic of conversation, someone is still so mind-killed that their reaction is "how will this affect advertising".
  - s73ver 9y ago
    Not mind killed. Just a realist. You and I both know that's what would happen.
    - wutbrodo 9y ago
      Dude, way to _still_ not get the point. Whether or not you're correct has literally nothing to do with what I'm talking about. My complaint wasn't about you being wrong, it was that your small-minded enough that even in a conversation about the very nature of the human mind, your contribution is about advertising. It's just a more niche version of those people who manage to turn literally every conversation into "yea and if the fucking _republicans_/_democrats_ get their way blah blah". Whether or not they're correct in any given instance is entirely besides the point.
leggomylibro 9y ago
We currently think that it is, but that's not to say that we won't turn out to be wrong. Maybe someday we will come up with a coherent model for how things like mood, your current gut fauna, the amount ambient light, what you ate/drank over the past few weeks, etc. affect how you act and do. Well, what happens when/if we nail that model down and find out that it doesn't account for some wibbly-wobbly quantum going on in the dense electrical storms of our brains, which pulls in information from somewhere else from time to time? Don't try to answer a question like this authoritatively in the same paragraph that you mention you're currently a student...
barrkel 9y ago
That's like saying that electrical circuits are the reason that a web browser shows a web page when click on a link. There's no "home button transistor", but there may be transistors that, by their switching, control the appearance and action of the home button. Mechanism isn't rationale. Web browsers work because they were designed at a high level to accomplish a task, and a lower level of primitives was assembled (literally and figuratively) to implement the task. When we talk about reasons for something, we normally have intention in mind, and we're talking in a high level abstraction mode. Mechanism is just an implementation detail. In the absence of a designer, mechanism doesn't cease to be an implementation detail; we don't have legs because of the signalling actions of cells in the embryo, triggered by DNA and proteins, cause fleshy buds to grow into bony appendages. We have legs so we can move around, and we can move around because in our ecological niche we're more successful moving around. The reason for legs doesn't lie in biology at the organ or chemical or physical level, because those are implementation details to the reason mode of thought.
b_emery 9y ago
Maybe start with something very small and hopefully simple, like a zooplankton, and figure out how that works, then work your way up ... anyway, good luck.

goldenkey 9y ago

You've got it all figured out, don't you? How does figuring out how computation works somehow eliminate all the variables in a multidimensional turing complete system? What you claim is so simple is equivalent to solving the halting problem.

s73ver 9y ago

No. Do not do that. The second that the cause/effect relationship is understood down to a neuron level like that, advertisers will abuse that to make things even more effective.

wutbrodo 9y ago
This is truly peak HN. No matter how philosophical or universal the topic of conversation, someone is still so mind-killed that their reaction is "how will this affect advertising".
- s73ver 9y ago
  Not mind killed. Just a realist. You and I both know that's what would happen.
  - wutbrodo 9y ago
    Dude, way to _still_ not get the point. Whether or not you're correct has literally nothing to do with what I'm talking about. My complaint wasn't about you being wrong, it was that your small-minded enough that even in a conversation about the very nature of the human mind, your contribution is about advertising. It's just a more niche version of those people who manage to turn literally every conversation into "yea and if the fucking _republicans_/_democrats_ get their way blah blah". Whether or not they're correct in any given instance is entirely besides the point.

leggomylibro 9y ago

We currently think that it is, but that's not to say that we won't turn out to be wrong. Maybe someday we will come up with a coherent model for how things like mood, your current gut fauna, the amount ambient light, what you ate/drank over the past few weeks, etc. affect how you act and do. Well, what happens when/if we nail that model down and find out that it doesn't account for some wibbly-wobbly quantum going on in the dense electrical storms of our brains, which pulls in information from somewhere else from time to time? Don't try to answer a question like this authoritatively in the same paragraph that you mention you're currently a student...

barrkel 9y ago

That's like saying that electrical circuits are the reason that a web browser shows a web page when click on a link. There's no "home button transistor", but there may be transistors that, by their switching, control the appearance and action of the home button. Mechanism isn't rationale. Web browsers work because they were designed at a high level to accomplish a task, and a lower level of primitives was assembled (literally and figuratively) to implement the task. When we talk about reasons for something, we normally have intention in mind, and we're talking in a high level abstraction mode. Mechanism is just an implementation detail. In the absence of a designer, mechanism doesn't cease to be an implementation detail; we don't have legs because of the signalling actions of cells in the embryo, triggered by DNA and proteins, cause fleshy buds to grow into bony appendages. We have legs so we can move around, and we can move around because in our ecological niche we're more successful moving around. The reason for legs doesn't lie in biology at the organ or chemical or physical level, because those are implementation details to the reason mode of thought.

b_emery 9y ago

Maybe start with something very small and hopefully simple, like a zooplankton, and figure out how that works, then work your way up ... anyway, good luck.