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Do our brains use a reasoning process invented by our brains?
by User23 8y ago
Do our brains use a reasoning process invented by our brains?
- taneq 8y agoWell, when (and if, I guess) we do finally properly understand how our brains work, then we'll know (somewhat tautologically) that they do use a reasoning process discovered by our brains.
- double0jimb0 8y agoWho’s asking?
- seppin 8y agoIs god in the image of a man? Probably not.
- virgilp 8y agoYou're downvoted, but I think you were just pointing out the reverse causality in the parent post, right? I.e. even if our brains are Bayesian, it's not that "they use a process discovered by them", it's just that they managed to decode what is the process that they were already using. Which doesn't seem ridiculous at all.
- User23 8y agoIt's not even a matter of causality, it's just a category error. Are there cranial phenomena that are analogous to Bayesian statistics? I don't see why not. But that doesn't mean that is how the brain operates. It's a matter of membership not isomorphism.
- kristoff_it 8y agoCould our brains have come up with a way of describing a process that was already there before?
- zby 8y agoDiscovered not invented.
- User23 8y agoDoes it exist somewhere in a platonic realm of forms?
- jamesrcole 8y agoIf our brains are Bayesian, evolution is what invented it.
- User23 8y agoWhen I studied biology it was drilled into us that evolution doesn't have agency. Has that changed?
- stan_rogers 8y agoNot as such, no, but if a heritable trait increases the likelihood of survival to reproduction, there is little other than unnecessary pedantry in the way of saying in a lay forum that evolution "invented" it.
- jamesrcole 8y agoI don't mean "invented" in the sense of conscious design process with foresight or intentions. I just mean the way the blind evolutionary process creates any "design".
- coldtea 8y agoYou don't need to have "agency" to invent. LSD and sticky notes were invented by accident -- as were tons of other things. Sure, one could add several pedantic reservations here, if they wanted to be thick on purpose, but the meaning of the parent's statement is clear. This series of passive aggressive counter-questions seems to violate the principle of charity.
- mygo 8y agoInvented? How do you know it didn’t exist before?