Memory

[James_S_Saint]

@finishedman

… and since we came with no individual mind, where does it come from? Who or what decides what will be put into memory and thus create ‘you?’

In a word… the “Noise”.

The loudest noise writes the history book.
You are “created” by reading it.

[fuse]

@Khrone

@fuse

See, I think of a computer as simply a more complicated version of the game “Mouse Trap,” or any other Rube Golderberg-like machine. A computer works like a simple chain reaction guided by micro-scale electronic machinery – instead of large-scale mechanical machinery – that allows for their coding and programming.

That’s how I think all intelligence works, even organic intelligence. But the micro-scale electronic machinery is replaced with neural connections.

And what about sentience?

Is sentience just another outcome in the ultimate chain reaction that is the universe?

[Khrone]

@fuse

And what about sentience?

Is sentience just another outcome in the ultimate chain reaction that is the universe?

Yep. Just a bunch of neurons firing in sequence.

[fuse]

This could be true, and yet I can’t shake the intuition that the difference between us and computers is not merely one of threshold or degree but of category.

[lizbethrose]

@fuse

This could be true, and yet I can’t shake the intuition that the difference between us and computers is not merely one of threshold or degree but of category.

I can’t either, fuse. There are too many ‘kinds’ of memory–or memories. There’s cellular ‘memory,’ ‘racial’ memory (the collective conscious–or unconscious,) instinct, existential memory, situational memory, sensational memory, etc., that can’t be reduced down to a series of ones and zeros. I may be wrong, but I can’t visualize it. Those memories are too individual.

As for sentience, I don’t think everything with memory, that isn’t a computer, has ‘sentience,’ necessarily. It depends on definition. Are the little black ants that invade our neighborhood every spring sentient? They communicate with each other, they protect themselves, they live in a social community, and they have memory. (Btw, I can’t kill them, because I think they are sentient. Other people argue that they aren’t sentient and kill them as pests.)

fm, We didn’t enter the world, or ‘come with no individual mind,’ with a blank mind. We were born with all sorts of memories. You just don’t believe me when I say that. So be it.

We’re also born abstracting our experiences into memory and we continue to do so throughout our lives. That’s why one person’s memory can differ from another person’s memory of the same event. We abstract what’s important to us as individuals. And so on.

If any of y’all can define human memory in a way that doesn’t involve comparing our minds to a computer, I’ll reward you with a heart-felt thank you.