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uniqueusername7 • yesterday at 10:27 PM • 2 replies • view on HN

What would you expect to happen of a brain were "unfolded" in some complicated way? Surely that would significantly change any structure in the em field. This hypothesis doesn't sound immediately wrong to me like many other non-materialist/non-physicalist ideas, but it does sound like a suspiciously convenient way of excluding non-biological entities from ever possibly having a human like experience.


Replies

breckinloggins • yesterday at 10:31 PM

I don’t think it would exclude non biological entities. If neurons are simply the way for such a structured field to be generated, sustained, and modulated, then presumably any physical apparatus that produced “that type of field” would produce experience.

Or a hybrid. We already know there’s a long range binding problem in neuroscience: how do physically separated neuron assemblies construct what we report as a gestalt experience.

This is a non spooky answer that also points to possible applications like cybernetic EM field modulators.

All of this is complete fantasy, of course, but the hypothesis at least has the virtue of not getting too far over its skis.

fooker • yesterday at 10:54 PM

An unfolded brain works fine.