One of the Obvious but Wrong answers on QI once was that we have five senses when it is clear from a basic inventory that we actually have many more. The most interesting is of course proprioception which is the body's mechanism for knowing the position of every bit of itself relative to the rest. This is how we can touch the tip of our noses in the dark or be able to move our eyes to look at where we hold our outstretched fingers. It is often difficult to tell where the boundaries between senses actually are but they must extend into the myriad mechanisms within the brain for keeping us within the range of acceptable behaviour. I suppose my internal coffee stack is just a part of one of these mechanisms. There are just so many interlinked systems in the body - chemical messengers - nerve impulses - and a whole range of things which link these things together. You cannot define the mind in terms of different black boxes because the whole relies on every other part to work. And you cannot say what will result if one of these systems breaks down - you cannot fix it replacing the broken piece.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Indus Trial
There is nothing interesting in the papers today. There has actually been no news and so over to Vladimir Ashkenazy for some music. It is also a No Weather Day (Copyright D.O. deBorde). All of which is possibly the result of me reading about The Cotard Delusion in this book. I'm certain I've never been close to suffering anything as bad as this but the book defines the spectrum of disorders which range from the alienation we all feel right through to being convinced that one is dead or that the world does not exist other than in the mind. It is impossible to rationalise these fears - they by default have to come from a severe disturbance or injury to the brain? What trigger within the mind needs to be removed to let this feeling take over?
One of the Obvious but Wrong answers on QI once was that we have five senses when it is clear from a basic inventory that we actually have many more. The most interesting is of course proprioception which is the body's mechanism for knowing the position of every bit of itself relative to the rest. This is how we can touch the tip of our noses in the dark or be able to move our eyes to look at where we hold our outstretched fingers. It is often difficult to tell where the boundaries between senses actually are but they must extend into the myriad mechanisms within the brain for keeping us within the range of acceptable behaviour. I suppose my internal coffee stack is just a part of one of these mechanisms. There are just so many interlinked systems in the body - chemical messengers - nerve impulses - and a whole range of things which link these things together. You cannot define the mind in terms of different black boxes because the whole relies on every other part to work. And you cannot say what will result if one of these systems breaks down - you cannot fix it replacing the broken piece.
One of the Obvious but Wrong answers on QI once was that we have five senses when it is clear from a basic inventory that we actually have many more. The most interesting is of course proprioception which is the body's mechanism for knowing the position of every bit of itself relative to the rest. This is how we can touch the tip of our noses in the dark or be able to move our eyes to look at where we hold our outstretched fingers. It is often difficult to tell where the boundaries between senses actually are but they must extend into the myriad mechanisms within the brain for keeping us within the range of acceptable behaviour. I suppose my internal coffee stack is just a part of one of these mechanisms. There are just so many interlinked systems in the body - chemical messengers - nerve impulses - and a whole range of things which link these things together. You cannot define the mind in terms of different black boxes because the whole relies on every other part to work. And you cannot say what will result if one of these systems breaks down - you cannot fix it replacing the broken piece.
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