The Mind

[Druidus]

What is the human mind? Something other than a conglomeration of neuronal tissue functioning under the same laws that other atoms, molecules, and cells follow? I've heard people say that the mind is different, something special, because it rewrites itself (or at least edits itself) continually and at will.

Sure, it's special, but what is this "will"? Is it not a part of the brain itself, functioning through physical means? Do we really have any choice?

I think we do not truly choose our actions, as they originate as impulses in physical matter, but I also believe that this isn't significant, because what we need is the illusion of choice/will. Depending on your genes and your environment, you, as an organism, are molded.

When we act, we could only have acted that way. Our environment gave us a setting, and we reacted to it. Since we are part of the environment (physical matter), we are part of the setting. We can have a propensity to learn in certain ways, to use different strategies, think, converse, sense, etc, mediated only by the interaction of our surroundings with our genes +/- time.

We evolved the illusion of choice to function socially, because justice relies upon that notion. We must act as if we really do will things, because it is the foundation of punishment for actions.

This causes me no fear. I still feel like I have will. The sensing and editing capabilities of our brains produce this feeling. Which no less real and wondrous than joy, or love.

Sense we are the setting, we must now alter the environment if we wish to achieve change in ourselves. Building environments is what we do, for the purpose of molding our thoughts in certain ways.

This version of reality causes me no worry, and it is every bit as beautiful as others. It is not the individual parts of the setting or environmnent that make up the world, but the world is indivisible, and we all are a very beautiful piece of it, a jewel on the the beach. We are not tarnished for having an illusion of consciousness.

The setting is conscious.

 

[Caladan]

Although our minds have devised the known history of our societies, grand religions and philosophies, and brilliant innovations, living in an organized society has pushed our creative, primal and natural consciousness into the depth of our subconscious, we are programmed from the moment we are born, whether by education or stereotypes.
this has been like a non physical death to our natural being.
for many centuries now, our minds have been trained to survive in new environments, our sensual perception of the outside world has been surrounded by skyscrapers and bureaucracy. lucid moments have become abnormal.
Instead of green jungles, we have come to know urban jungles. our metropolitan areas are a new landscape, it maybe otherwise seem to be disconnected from the other ecosystems, but it is vibrating, nets of veins run across, central impulses are beating, this is a new breeding spot for a new kind of intellectual experience. good or bad? some say we have made a mistake in our distant past and have repeated the pattern ever since.
but as much as our minds adapt, our primal senses and urges are still lurking in the darkest corners of our psych, and we havent the ability to suppress them and keep them at bay completely forever.