Psychology, mind. --- .Introduction or sum up mind. (1) Evolution of animal minds and human minds. (2) Nature, hard-wired, genetic influences on the mind vs. nurture, learning, malleable influences on the mind. (3) Consciousness vs. unconsciousness. (A) Freud's definition of the unconscious and conscious mind. (B) Modern neurobiology's view of the unconscious and conscious mind. (C) Conscious as awake and aware vs. unconsciousness as unawake or knocked-out. (4) Physical body vs. psychological mind. How they affect each other. The mind-body connection. (5) The study of the mind. (A) Folk views of mind. (B) Philosophy of mind. (C) Science of mind (psychology). (6) Anatomy and physiology of the brain. Structure and function of the brain on a micro-level and a macro-level. (7) Entire mind. "Minding". Sense plus memory plus emotion plus thought. --- 6/3/2002
Psychology, mind. --- .Introduction or sum up of topics of mind. (1) Consciousness and unconsciousness, and the connection between them. (2) Mind body connection. (3) Semantic content, symbolism and representation. (4) Freewill vs. determinism. (5) Nature vs. nurture. (6) Modularity of mind. (7) Functions of the mind. (8) Language and the mind. (9) Split hemispheres. (10) Triune brain theory. (11) Animal minds. (12) Child minds. (13) Damaged minds. (14) Evolution of the human mind. (15) Science of mind. (16) Philosophy of mind. (17) Emotions and brain. (18) Senses and brain. (19) Rationalism (deduction) vs. empiricism (induction). (20) Artificial intelligence, robots. (21) Extraterrestrial intelligence. (22) Brain (physical object) vs. mind (mental phenomena). (23) Self recognition, self reflexive thinking. (24) Freudianism, Behaviorism, Cognitive Science. (25) Brain as computer, computational mind. --- 6/13/2004
Psychology, mind. --- .This section is about the concept of mind. Topics include: ( ) Brain. (Neurology). ( ) Computer and mind. Artificial intelligence. (see also Technology). ( ) Content. ( ) Head. ( ) Mind and body. ( ) Nature and nurture. ( ) Philosophy of mind. --- 1/24/2006
Psychology, mind. --- "Getting out of the house". Changing your mental viewpoint in order to avoid mental inertia and calcification. To gain experiences. How to do it? Changing physical location is one way. --- 05/10/1997
Psychology, mind. --- (1) A memory is stored data. How do nerves store data? (2) Remembering and thinking are actions or functions that involve the transmission of information. How do nerves transmit information? (3) Memory may be transmission of information along an old path. Thinking may be transmission of information on a new path. --- 8/7/2001
Psychology, mind. --- (1) Developing mind. Taking time to think your own thoughts. (2) Losing mind. Having work, school, girlfriend impose thoughts on you, or take away your time for thinking. Forgetting. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, mind. --- (1) Free, wild, thinking for selves vs. (2) Unfree, capped, limited, molded, unquestioning acceptance. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, mind. --- (1) Having knowledge without ability. (2) Having ability but not opportunity (environment factors). (3) Having all three. (4) Having none of three. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, mind. --- (1) Instinctual, spontaneous. (A) Pro: free. (B) Contra: no planning. (2) Deliberate, repressed. (A) Pro: planning. (B) Contra: rigid, no creativity. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, mind. --- (1) Organization vs. disorganization. (2) Integration vs. disintegration. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, mind. --- (1) The brain is made of neurons. (2) The content of the brain is data and operations. The data is stored as memories in neurons. The operations are also stored as memories in neurons. For example, in language, the vocabulary is stored in memories and the grammar is stored in memories. (3) It can't be the case of one neuron per memory. The data must be a combination of neurons, or a path of neurons. (4) How to devise a technology that can observe the brain without interfering with the brain? How to observe the paths of neurons that fire when operations are performed on data? How to separate data from operations? How to download the brain to a computerized model and then run experiments? --- 12/6/2005
Psychology, mind. --- (1) We can "re-wire" our brains through behavioral and environmental changes. (2) Adults can grow new brain cells and brain cell connections. (3) These are very empowering, pro-active views. --- 4/23/1999
Psychology, mind. --- (1) What if someone consumed the same books, movies, music and art at the same ages I did? How similar would we be? (2) What if I never consumed any books, movies, music and art? What if I had no experiences? What would I be like? --- 3/29/2002
Psychology, mind. --- (1) What is the structure or anatomy of the brain? (2) What is the mechanism or physiology of the brain? (3) How does the brain develop? How to improve the brain? (4) What can go wrong with the brain? How to fix the brain? --- 12/5/2005
Psychology, mind. --- A new type of thinking would be cool. A new type of symbol would be cool. --- 6/28/2000
Psychology, mind. --- An argument. (1) There are no cultures, there are only individuals. (2) There are no individuals, there are only multiple-personae or multiple-selves. (3) There are no personae or selves, there are only attitudes (ideas and emotions) that bounce around and interact. (4) So what can we now hang our hat on? How will we feel secure? Some people only feel safe in a pre-made mind that is like a fortress castle. But it now looks like the mind is a handmade, light, portable, mobile, flexible, and adaptable like a tent. --- 8/18/2000
Psychology, mind. --- Analysis of an individuals mind. (1) Momentary vs. long term. (2) Healthy vs. unhealthy. (3) Causes and effects. (4) Conscious vs. unconscious. (5) Problems. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, mind. --- Brain and body. Brain without body vs. body without brain. Which is worse? --- 11/30/1996
Psychology, mind. --- Brain and body. Where do we draw the line between physical and mental? Brain and its chemicals are physical. Thoughts and emotions have physical causes, but are they physical things? --- 01/01/1997
Psychology, mind. --- Brain. (1) How much of brain activity is purely random? Current theories suggest that dreams are the result of random brain activity. Perhaps when a thought "pops into our heads" this is also the result of random brain activity, and not the result of the Freudian unconscious as many attribute it to be. (2) In the past much progress was made by viewing the mind in mechanistic terms. But the mechanistic model does not deal well with the random aspects of brain activity. Machines are seldom random. Take a car engine, for example, which is a precisely tuned machine. The less randomness in a car engine the better. If you think of the brain in these terms you may not appreciate the random aspects of brain activity. For example, a mild bio-electrical discharge in the brain, or a mild bio-chemical shift in the brain, may trigger a string of random thoughts and emotions. --- 7/16/2000
Psychology, mind. --- Brain. (1) How much of the brain is devoted to symbol content and its storage? (2) How much of the brain is devoted to operations, functions, logic, thinking. (3) How much of the brain is devoted to physical connectivity, transfer, transportation? How much of the brain is (A) empty but potentially useful space, and (B) empty and useless space? (5) How much of the brain is devoted to senses, drives and emotions? --- 6/25/2000
Psychology, mind. --- Brain. How much of brain activity is electrical? How much of brain activity is chemical? How much of brain activity is something else? --- 7/16/2000
Psychology, mind. --- Building the mind. (1) Pick components: Selection of concepts. (2) Order components: Organization of concepts. Creation of categories. (3) Interaction of components: Mechanism of logic rules. --- 5/30/1998
Psychology, mind. --- Computer and mind. (1) Making the brain more like a computer: Implant silicon chips in the brain. (2) Making computers more like brains: DNA computing. Quantum computing. --- 6/26/2000
Psychology, mind. --- Computer and mind. Are we ready to claim that neurons are the same as transistors? Or are they merely similar in some respects. I say the latter. (2) Are we ready to claim that human memory is the same a computer memory? (3) What does a computer's central processing unit correspond to in humans? Humans don't have a central location for processing. (4) Are we ready to claim that computers are like animal brains? If a sheep can easily recognize the face of its neighbor (experiments show) then why is it so difficult for computers to recognize faces? --- 7/1/2002
Psychology, mind. --- Computer and mind. Brain as computer metaphor. (1) Does the entire mind work like a computer, or only part of the brain? (2) Our definition of a computer is changing from a number calculator to text processor to image processor. Isn't it more fair to say that our computers are becoming like our brains than it is to say our brains are like computers? (3) Saying the brain is like a computer vs. saying the computer is like a brain. They have certain similarities and certain differences. vs. (4) Saying the brain and computer are the same thing. Anything a computer can do a brain can do, theoretically or practically, now or in the future. Anything the brain can do a computer can do, theoretically or practically, now or in future. --- 8/25/2002
Psychology, mind. --- Computer and mind. How does the brain differ from computer? It can direct itself, it can create new ideas without input. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, mind. --- Computer and mind. How is the brain not a computer? (1) Computers are electrically powered. Brain is not electrically powered primarily. Brain is powered primarily by glucose. (2) Computers are made from silicon. Brain is not silicon. Brain is neurons, neurotransmitters and some bioelectricity. (3) Computers are software and hardware. Brain is not software and hardware. (4) Computers are preprogrammed. Brain is not preprogrammed. (5) Computers are not self learning. Brain is self learning. (6) Computers have memory. Humans have memory. (7) Computers perform operations on symbols. Does the brain perform operations on symbols? Yes. --- 9/1/2004
Psychology, mind. --- Computer and mind. How is the brain not like a computer? (1) Computers are based on electricity and silicon. Brains are based on neurons, neurotransmitters and hormones. (2) Computers are made of hardware that runs software. If neurons are the brain's hardware then what is the brain's software? (3) Computers are digital (discrete states) and binary (two discrete states). A transistor is either on or off. Brains are probably neither digital nor binary. --- 11/25/2001
Psychology, mind. --- Computer and mind. If the brain is a network, then just as computer networks are geographically dispersed, so to the brain may be geographically dispersed within the skull. It does not necessarily have to be that specific areas of the brain do specific tasks, just like the computers that perform a task on a network may be located on opposite sides of the world. --- 5/2/2000
Psychology, mind. --- Computer and mind. Our brain neurons are functionally similar to transistors? Totally or just somewhat? --- 8/9/1998
Psychology, mind. --- Computer and mind. The question is, in what ways does our brain work like a computer, and what ways does it not? Does the brain have analogs to computer languages such as data types, literals, variables, operators, functions, flow control statements, input/output, etc.? If math, natural languages and computer languages are similar then must they all, to some extent, mirror how the mind works? --- 7/12/2001
Psychology, mind. --- Content. Concepts. Representational theory of mind. (1) Content is not coded in mind by single neurons only. What if that neuron should die. Its a group of neurons. Its not a new group of neurons each time. Its the same group of neurons. (2) The content in the brain is self rebuilding. If part of the brain is injured, other parts take over knowledge and abilities. (3) The senses. Sight, sound, smell, touch, taste. The language, the word, attaches to the picture, the sound, the smell, the touch, the taste. --- 9/1/2004
Psychology, mind. --- Content. Mental content. (1) How does the brain give the appearance of a unified sensory input of sight, sound, touch, taste and smell? (2) How does the brain remember sights, sounds and images all at once? (3) How are words, images, sounds and numbers stored in the brain? How does the brain perform operations on words, images, sounds, numbers and other forms of mental content? --- 10/13/2004
Psychology, mind. --- Content. What is in our heads? What is in our minds? Ideas? Sentences? Words? Pictures? --- 6/29/2004
Psychology, mind. --- Content. What is the content of our minds? The content of our minds is primarily memories. It is more accurate to say our minds are full of memories than to say our minds are full of concepts, ideas or thoughts. --- 6/8/2005
Psychology, mind. --- Definitions of mind: (1) Can learn and adapt. (2) Can sense its environment. (3) Imagines. (4) Controls and directs its thoughts and behavior (if embodied). Has free will. (5) Can feel pain. --- 02/01/1994
Psychology, mind. --- Design principles for the brain. (1) The brain evolved, so it will retain vestiges of previous structures and mechanisms. The brain will be built in layers or modules. (2) The brain requires energy to work, so the design of the brain should be energy efficient. --- 3/27/2007
Psychology, mind. --- Design principles for the brain. (1) The mind is not an algorithmic mechanism, rather, the mind is a heuristic mechanism. (2) The mind does not use exact concepts, rather, the mind uses fuzzy concepts. --- 1/24/2007
Psychology, mind. --- Development of a person's mind. If you believe that humans are 100% nurture then you would think that the development of a person's mind is the result of learning. Every ability of an adult mind is the result of learning. (2) If you believe that there is some amount of "nature" then anything other than learning could be happening. Genes could turn on and off later in life. New physiological structures could form later in life. New neuro chemicals could form. (3) There could be a complicated interplay between nature and nurture. --- 11/30/2005
Psychology, mind. --- Dreams and consciousness. If an animal dreams then the animal must have a subconscious mind? --- 3/11/2007
Psychology, mind. --- Entire mind. There is no word that means "to use one's entire mind". "Thinking" is a word used for reason. "Feeling" is about emotion. "Remembering" is about memory. I use the word "minding" to mean doing all three (thinking, feeling, remembering). We usually do all three at once anyway. It is impossible to do one without doing the other two. --- 12/29/1997
Psychology, mind. --- Every person's mind is different. How different can people be? --- 3/11/2007
Psychology, mind. --- Freewill and determinism. To say "Only humans have freewill.", is to say that humans are the only animals that are not 100% pre-programmed and driven by instinct alone. That is a false statement. Many animals are capable of learning, and thus they are not 100% instinctual, and thus they probably have some degree of freewill. Freewill is not an "all or none" proposition. Nor is freewill only of one type, the "human" type. Nor do humans have 100% freewill, without any influence from psychological, social and environmental pressures. Eventually we will probably see that each animal has its own type and degree of freewill. --- 6/1/2002
Psychology, mind. --- Gene therapy. We could unlock the history of DNA to give humans the abilities that animals have. New and better senses. --- 6/28/2000
Psychology, mind. --- Head. Don't let work, school, girlfriend change your personality, philosophy, and goals. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, mind. --- Head. It does not matter where you live, or what job you have. These things are irrelevant b.s. All that matters is the place where your head is at, and where it is headed (going). --- 06/06/1994
Psychology, mind. --- Head. The key is to create a world, or get your head in a spot, which is impossible to duplicate, or at least which few people inhabit or share. Make it a good world. Don't let anyone or anything destroy your world. Superman. Yet don't lose touch with reality. Most people are in the mental suburbs. --- 10/20/1997
Psychology, mind. --- Head. The lonely fight of the individual by themselves to get, maintain, and use head. Some struggle harder, some get further. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, mind. --- Head. The worst thing to lose or not develop is character, state of mind, attitude, mind-set. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, mind. --- Head. Where is your head at? What is your mental state? --- 05/06/1994
Psychology, mind. --- How did Helen Keller think before she learned sign language? Did she create her own language without even trying? --- 12/2/2001
Psychology, mind. --- How did minds or brains come to be? Through the process of evolution. --- 2/27/2005
Psychology, mind. --- How do minds or brains work? --- 2/27/2005
Psychology, mind. --- Human minds vs. animal minds vs. artificial minds. PART ONE. Human mind vs. animal mind. (1) What can the human mind do that other animal minds cannot do? The differences are mostly of degree than type. (2) What can animal minds do that human minds cannot do? Animals minds can do a lot of things that human minds cannot do. The sonar of bats and dolphins for example. PART TWO. Human minds vs. artificial minds (i.e., computers). (1) What can the human mind do that artificial minds cannot do? (2) What can artificial minds do that human minds cannot do? --- 6/3/2002
Psychology, mind. --- I am interested in the mind or brain from a biological or medical point of view because we should not concentrate on explaining the mind, or predicting it. We should improve it. The brain is not a holy organ that is not to be touched. We must try to make them better, even if we risk being called Dr. Frankenstein. All other philosophy of mind is bullshit. --- 07/01/1994
Psychology, mind. --- If mind equals brain, and if brain equals body, then there is only the body, and therefore it is the body that writes the book. --- 6/3/2002
Psychology, mind. --- Interpretation. The mind is an interpretation machine. The mind interprets all experiences. (1) A mind without the capability for language must still interpret the meaning of thoughts and experiences. (2) Once a sentient being acquires language, then it does much of its thinking in words and sentences which must be interpreted by saying to the self "What do I mean by that sentence?" --- 3/22/2007
Psychology, mind. --- Introduction or summary of my view of the human mind. (1) Drive. A deflationary view of drive. Innate drives may produce urges and tendencies, but drives ultimately do not determine how humans act. (2) Thought. A deflationary view of thought, relative to the popular conception which inflates thought. The popular view is that humans think more that they actually do. My view is that humans think less than they think they think. Humans should think more. (3) Memory. An inflationary view of memory. Memory is more important than humans acknowledge. (4) Personality. A deflationary view of personality. There is no such thing as personality. How a person changes and develops is more important than how a person stays the same through time. (5) A deflationary view of behavior and behaviorism. Behavior alone does not explain much. (6) An inflationary view of attitudes. One's attitudes (thoughts and emotions) are as important as behavior. Thought, emotion and memory are welded together. And thus, most mental content is attitudes. (7) An inflationary view of emotion. (8) To call a view inflationary or deflationary is to compare the view to the current, popular, mainstream views. --- 1/8/2006
Psychology, mind. --- Intuition can only be unconscious reasons, emotions, or drives. Nothing else. --- 06/15/1994
Psychology, mind. --- Is a memory/emotion/thought a result of a combination of neurons firing? Or is a memory/emotion/thought the actual electro-chemical impulse that travels through the brain? The impulse that travels through the brain is not a physical container that picks up and drops off physical items along the way. If nothing is physically moving then how does it work? Does it work like the telephone system? Does it work like a computer? --- 12/6/2005
Psychology, mind. --- Its more useful to talk of minds (plural) than mind, because there are so many different types of actual minds, each having many different abilities. An analogy can be made between minds and the Creative Commons form of licensing (www.creativecommons.org) where you pick the individual components of the license that you want to use. You can talk about minds with language. You can talk about minds with symbol processing ability. You can talk about minds that have social ability, etc. --- 3/9/2006
Psychology, mind. --- Mental states. The infinite variety of mental states. Pros and cons of different mental states or elements. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, mind. --- Mind and body. The central nervous system extends through the entire body and thus we "mind" with our entire body. --- 6/3/2002
Psychology, mind. --- Mind and body. Understanding with the body. Music and dance are two examples of ways how humans "understand with the body" in addition to understanding with the mind. Humans have been understanding with the body for millions of years, and we will understand with the body for millions more years. Psychology has, up till now, paid relatively little attention to understanding with the body. It is time we pay more attention to the concept of understanding with the body. How could it be possible to understand with the body? Our solar plexus, spinal cord and feet are examples of areas rich in nerve ganglia or nerve endings. A nerve ganglia is a type of proto-brain. When we experience an event and say we "felt it in my gut", or "felt it run up my spine", we are engaged in forms of understanding with the body. What are some of the implications of understanding with the body for everyday living? One piece of advice is to pay equal attention to your body and mind. --- 2/23/2001
Psychology, mind. --- Mind complex. (1) Total vs. partial. (2) Momentary vs. any time period. (3) Optimal, health, suboptimal, or pathological. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, mind. --- Mind is not the same thing as consciousness. A theory of mind is not the same thing as a theory of consciousness. Why? Because not all minds are conscious minds. --- 5/30/2005
Psychology, mind. --- Mind, brain, head. Mind = perceptions. Brain = physical. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, mind. --- Mind, feel, and think accurately and fast. Do accurately and fast. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, mind. --- Minds. (1) What is a mind? How does one define what is a mind? How does describe what is a mind? (2) Give example of a mind. Does a rock have a mind? Does a plant have a mind? Does an animal have a mind? Does a human have a mind? Does a robot have a mind? Does an alien have a mind? (3) Consciousness and mind. Some minds are not conscious. Some minds are conscious. (4) Language and mind. Some minds have language. Some minds do not have language. (5) Minds have feedback mechanisms. Minds react to environment. All minds are cybernetic. But not all cybernetic mechanisms are minds. For example, a thermostat works by feedback but it is not a mind. Plants grow toward sunlight but they don't have minds. (6) Mind and body. Minds control a body. But what about cases of bodiless minds and mindless bodies? Not all minds have bodies. Not all bodies have minds. --- 6/1/2005
Psychology, mind. --- Multi-tasking. How does the brain determine priority of tasks? --- 10/13/2004
Psychology, mind. --- My theory of the mind emphasizes memory. Memory yields thinking. Better memory yields better thought. Language is the next most important factor next to memory, but we may discover that the ability for language is based on an ability for memory of language, which is a type of abstract memory ability. --- 6/8/2005
Psychology, mind. --- Natural language (like English) in the human mind is not like computer languages in computer processing. Lines of natural language do not make the mind think. Rather, natural languages are like a report of the mind thinking, and natural languages are similar to the reports a computer generates about its processing. --- 12/1/2001
Psychology, mind. --- Nature and nurture. If human nature and behavior was 100% shaped by society (nurture) and completely malleable then (1) You could turn anyone's behavior into anyone else's behavior. (2) You could make anyone act any way. --- 5/18/2000
Psychology, mind. --- Nature and nurture. The neuron wiring is hard wired. Therefore the basic concepts are hard wired. Therefore the basic language is hard wired. Therefore the basic instincts and views are hard wired. Therefore we are pre-disposed to believe certain things and act certain ways. --- 9/30/1998
Psychology, mind. --- Nature and nurture. To what extent are our minds "wired up" to work a certain way (i.e. predetermined)? In what ways, and to what degrees? --- 03/30/1993
Psychology, mind. --- Nature vs. nurture. (1) How could the brain be 100% nurture? Saying the brain is 100% nurture is as nonsensical as saying the rest of the body is 100% nurture. The brain is part of the body. Genes affect the development of the brain much like genes affect the development of the body. (2) How could the brain be 100% nature? Saying the brain is 100% nature is as nonsensical as saying the rest of the body is 100% nature. The brain is part of the body. The environment affects the development of the brain much like the environment affects the development of the body. --- 11/30/2005
Psychology, mind. --- One of the best ways to think about mind is from an evolutionary perspective. One of the best ways to study evolution is by studying animal psychology. --- 3/22/2007
Psychology, mind. --- Perhaps the human mind, like the human body, has multiple ways of working, so that if one module goes down then the body can get along using the other modules. Built-in fault tolerance. --- 12/2/2001
Psychology, mind. --- Philosophy of mind. (1) Of course we get our ideas from our senses (empiricism) and logical rules (rationalism) both working together. (2) We don't even need words. Examples: A man sees a woman and imagines himself with the woman. Child sees cake and imagines self eating cake. --- 09/01/1994
Psychology, mind. --- Philosophy of mind. (1) Private language argument. Only we know what we mean when we say anything. (2) Other minds problem. We can not know (at all? ever?) what another mind is thinking. That is, each mind is unique, and each meaning of each word is unique. (3) Free will (A) Personal, internal free will = degree of reason (ability to see choices and consequences) vs. degree emotionally overwhelmed (by id), or brainwashed by society (superego). (B) Social, external freedom = what kind of job they allow you to have, due to educational degree, or due to legal or illegal discrimination. (4) Human mind: consciousness, perception, memory, emotion, thought. (A) From emotion to empathy to social justice to ethics. (B) Thinking of things real or imagined, objects or events. Visual thinking vs. verbal thinking vs. inferential thinking (rule based like math or logic). Abstraction: an imagined perfect "x". (5) Humans: use language, can lie, can speak of the future and the possible, are conscious, are self-reflexive, have freewill or intention. (6) Simple to complex minds. Number mental activities, and degree of difficulty or complexity of mental abilities. Any mind, be it human, animal, or artificial. A super mind = genius or god. --- 02/04/1994
Psychology, mind. --- Philosophy of mind. (1) What is mind? What does the word "mind" mean? What do we mean when we say mind, soul, or spirit? (2) How does the brain work? (3) The mind is pluralistic by nature. We should concentrate on identifying all the tasks and subtasks we can do with our minds. Science experiments will show how we do it. The sooner we stop using vague (through being excessively general) terms like mind, brain, human, etc., the better. (4) Language thought vs. image thought. Sight is the most primary sense. (5) How do we experience vs. how do we think (inference, logic, algorithm vs. heuristics). Abstraction as classification. (6) Animal minds vs. human minds (evolution, comparative and developmental psychology). (7) Content and structure vs. process and functions. (8) Think of definitive experiments to prove or disprove important questions. --- 1/28/1994
Psychology, mind. --- Philosophy of mind. Ascendancy of psychology (behaviorism, cognitive psychology, and neuro-psychology) over philosophy of mind. --- 05/30/1993
Psychology, mind. --- Philosophy of mind. Has philosophy of mind come up with any arguments that psychology or biology has not thought of, or improved upon, conceptually or in terms of empirical knowledge? --- 01/08/1994
Psychology, mind. --- Philosophy of mind. Hundreds of years of philosophy of mind theories, and we had to wait till new technology (Computer Aided Tomography) and experiments showed us how the brain really worked. --- 03/16/1997
Psychology, mind. --- Philosophy of mind. People who say that the mind is just certain brain neurotransmitters firing are like people who say that a book is just paper with ink spread on it a certain way. They ignore the semantic content. --- 8/26/1998
Psychology, mind. --- Philosophy of mind. The mind is just the brain. There is no magic. Consciousness is just a brain working. The philosophy of mind craze is a joke. Trying to philosophically explain mind and consciousness is ridiculous. Just experiment and find out how the brain works using science. Science is the way. --- 4/15/1998
Psychology, mind. --- Randomness in brain processes. Physical inputs like food, exercise and sleep can affect and trigger emotions, thoughts and attitudes in a random way. There is a random element to psychology. --- 6/3/2002
Psychology, mind. --- See also: Technology, computers > Artificial intelligence. --- 7/22/2005
Psychology, mind. --- States of mind. (1) Music is a pattern, a repetition, a drone, a sound mandala, a sound mantra. The music focuses, the music calms, the music expands. Its all about states of mind. Chopping wood, or walking, or breathing, or making love, all can have the same effect. (2) In different states of mind different answers come to us. Different states of mind to accomplish different tasks. (3) Know what state of mind you are in. Know what state of mind you want to get into. Know how to get into that state of mind. Visit the different states of mind on a regular basis. (4) How many states of mind are there? Which states of mind are helpful and which are not helpful? What causes states of mind? (A) Chemicals like neurotransmitters and hormones. (B) Electrical impulses. (C) Fasting, diet, exercise, love, experiences, actions, body, people, arts. --- 8/26/2000
Psychology, mind. --- Structure and function of mind. The mind is often thought of in terms of structure and function. Talking about conceptual structure and not physiological structure. (1) Structure of concepts. Alternative possibilities: (A) There are many (competing and cooperating) structures of concepts in an individuals mind. (B) There is one structure of concepts in an individuals mind. (C) There are no structures of concepts in an individuals mind. Its all random, or there is some degree of randomness. (2) Function. Alternative possibilities. (A) There are many functions in an individuals mind. (ex. modularity) (B) There is one function in an individuals mind. (ex. general purpose machine). (C) There is no function in an individuals mind. It is all random, or there is some degree of randomness. --- 7/16/2000
Psychology, mind. --- Subconscious metaphors develop all the time, because the brain has an active subconscious, and the one of the things the subconscious does is generate metaphors. --- 10/17/2005
Psychology, mind. --- The human mind is very versatile. The human mind is complex. The human mind can do many things. The human mind does so many things, so quickly, almost instantaneously, without conscious prompting, that it seems quite amazing. How does the human mind do all the things it does? How did the human mind evolve to do all the things it does? --- 12/6/2005
Psychology, mind. --- The mind is centered in the brain, and the brain relies on the body. There has to be some physical movement for thought to happen. The mind cannot be inert like a rock. The movement is neurons firing. Neurons firing is an electro-chemical phenomenon. --- 6/13/2004
Psychology, mind. --- Theories of mind. (1) What is a mind? Anything that can think? Anything that can feel emotions? Anything that can feel physical sensations? (2) Who has a mind? People. Animals. Robots? Aliens (perchance we meet them)? Animals have minds, but plants do not. (3) "At what point would a robot have a mind?", is a different question than asking, "At what point would a robot be conscious". (4) What are the things that a mind can do? What functions can mind perform? Functionalism. (5) How do minds work? (6) What are minds made of? Minds built of neurons. Minds built of silicon. --- 6/13/2004
Psychology, mind. --- Two key ideas. (1) How fast and how much do I forget, for any specific fact, skill, or subject area? That is the rate I should review. (2) How many new ideas do I develop (find or figure) for any subject area? --- 8/15/2005
Psychology, mind. --- Unconscious mind. How to get along with, and make peace with, your unconscious mind? --- 4/1/2005
Psychology, mind. --- What does the brain do? Process information. Keep the body working. Eat, sleep, f*ck. --- 10/13/2004
Psychology, mind. --- What happens when minds collide? What is the nature of mind-mind interactions? What gets exchanged? Information gets exchanged. --- 6/13/2004
Psychology, mind. --- What if the content, structure and mechanism of all human minds were the same? Each individual the exact same as the next. It would destroy diversity and adaptability of the human species. It would reduce the overall creativity of the human species. It would be like a single-crop economy that hovers perilously close to collapse. --- 3/25/2002
Psychology, mind. --- What is a mind? (1) What is a mind? It depends how you define the word "mind". In the animal kingdom we can observe all types of minds from the simplest animals to the most complex animals. Simple worms have simple nerve nets made of neurons. Earthworms have nerve nets plus ganglia. Chordates have spinal cords and brains. These things let animals sense their environment and react to their environment. (2) The varying complexity of minds in the different animal orders is made evident by how well different animals orders can learn. Reptiles cannot be trained. Birds can be trained to press a button for a reward. Simple mammals can engage in simple learning. Rats can run a maze. Even higher level cognitive abilities include tool use and language. (2) Can there be minds that are not in animals and that are not made of neurons? That is, can there be artificial intelligence? Is it possible that there is intelligent extraterrestrial life? There is no evidence yet of extraterrestrial life. Its possible that computers in the future may equal human minds but they do not today. (3) Is a computer a mind? Is the earth a mind? Is the universe a mind? It depends how you define the word "mind". (4) Not all minds are conscious. Some minds are conscious. Some minds lack consciousness. And there are different definitions of the word "consciousness", just like there are different definitions of the word "mind". --- 2/27/2005
Psychology, mind. --- What is the nature of mind and brain? (1) What tasks does the brain or mind do? Sense, emotion, memory, thought, behavior, etc. (2) How does the brain or mind do the things it does? By sending signals through a network of nerves. (3) Multi-tasking. How does the brain switch tasks? How does the brain know when to go from sensing to memory to feeling to thinking? Perhaps all tasks go on all the time and the brain only needs to switch our attention to these tasks. --- 10/13/2004
Psychology, mind. --- What now? Cognitive science is not the be all and end all. Cognitive science cannot do everything. Once you know how the brain works there are still left plenty of other problems in the world. --- 3/20/2007
Psychology, mind. --- What now? So you finally figured out how the human brain works. What are you going to do now? Maybe you can start working on solving the rest of the problems of the world which you have been ignoring up till now. --- 6/1/2007
Psychology, mind. --- Why understand minds? (1) To heal minds. (2) To improve minds. (3) To make artificial minds. --- 4/1/2005