From: Lyle Burkhead (LYBRHED@delphi.com)
Date: Wed Dec 25 1996 - 12:19:57 MST
David Musick writes,
> I belive that our individual thought processes are part of a
> much larger thought process that is a result of the way
> individual brains link up with each other. Because we communicate
> so intensely and assimilate each other's ideas so freely,
> we are participating in the processes of a larger mind,
> which acts as coherently and intelligently as any individual mind
> composing it.
>
> Having multiple personalities makes it easier for me to see the
> parallels between an individual mind and the mind of the collective,
> Humanity. But am I simply projecting my condition on Humanity
> as a whole?
One of the basic themes of Plato's Republic is that the human mind is
a reflection of society; you can't understand one without understanding
the other.
> I see the thousands of personalities in my own mind interacting
> to form a coherent, intelligent entity, and I think that all humans
> interact to form a similar type of coherent, intelligent entity.
But not with the same degree of coherence. Your mind, fragmented
though it is, is much more coherent than humanity as a whole.
If a larger mind is to be as coherent as an individual mind, it has to be
smaller than humanity-as-a-whole, and it has to have a structure.
> In my thinking, my thoughts provoke storms of association,
> and they follow the same sort of winding path that people do
> when they communicate with each other.
I wrote a post about this a couple of weeks ago --"intelligence increase
(retracing associations)". However, my thoughts don't usually provoke
"storms" of association. I go in and out of "storm" mode. Most of the
time I am in "path" mode. There is a difference. But then, I don't have
thousands of distinct personalities, so it may be hard to compare our
experiences.
The structure of your mind is not given. It depends on your ontology.
The storms or chains of association that exist in our consciousness are
just the raw material from which we construct our minds. Theologies
create minds.
Merry Christmas,
Lyle
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