4 ms·
> when the researchers passed a mild current through the electrodes, stimulating a small region at the intersection of the temporal and parietal lobes of her b
by GuiA 12y ago
> when the researchers passed a mild current through the electrodes, stimulating a small region at the intersection of the temporal and parietal lobes of her brain, she experienced what she described as a shadowy presence lurking nearby, mimicking her own posture.
Those kind of things feel very existentialist to me. This shows that human perception, sentience, and consciousness are deeply and essentially tied to our biology, and that we're all a few micrograms of chemicals or electrical impulses in the wrong part of our brain from complete schizophrenia.
This seems like a very strong argument against any kind of transhumanist rhetoric, and that no matter how much our understanding of the universe and manipulation of the physical word progress, the very concept of being human is forever tied to our physical body.
- nitrogen 12y agoThis seems like a very strong argument against any kind of transhumanist rhetoric, and that no matter how much our understanding of the universe and manipulation of the physical word progress, the very concept of being human is forever tied to our physical body. I would replace "physical body" with physics here, and from that draw the opposite conclusion. The fact that we are purely physical/electrical/chemical in our existence suggests that some other physical/electrical/chemical system could reproduce our existence if it behaved in the same way.
- eksith 12y agoThat line of reasoning also has parallels to irreducible complexity, which time and again has been proven false. Just because the machine is so sophisticated and extremely delicate doesn't mean its functions will forever remain a mystery. Or that it will never be duplicated and controlled.