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Software is made of human ideas molded into grammar, syntax, and abstractions. We know how to work with those at every level. The mind is made of and affected
by tux3 4y ago
Software is made of human ideas molded into grammar, syntax, and abstractions. We know how to work with those at every level.
The mind is made of and affected by proteins, enzymes, small molecules. Those form cells, and larger structures, but at every level it is exceptionally hard for us to work with those building blocks.
There's no nice formulas or method that can tell you what a protein does, or how to design one that does what you want.
It is as if every single token of the source code was encrypted, and it took great effort to translate anything, word by word, slowly and painstakingly.
One thing we can do is take small bits of code, put them in thousands of slightly different live systems, and watch what happens. Clinical trials. That helps a lot, but it is still an uphill battle trying to understand the far future alien technology that is biology.
- closedloop129 4y agoDo we have to understand the biological level? We don't talk about silicon when we talk about software. Art shows us the structure of the mind without the need of understanding its physical representation. Another way is spirituality where structures are called demons. We have some understanding of art, but it feels as limited as medieval alchemy. There must be a better way to approach our mind.
- tux3 4y agoIt depends what you want to get out of your study of the mind. Art can be a goal in and of itself. It, however, has historically contributed less to the success of medicine than furthering our understanding of biology. So, I have a pretty narrow, muleheaded interest in evidence-based beliefs that pay their rents in predictions about the world. Those I like, because they sometimes convert into useful medical interventions.