From: Damien Broderick (damien@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Wed Dec 09 1998 - 16:31:30 MST
At 06:43 PM 12/8/98 -0800, Paul wrote in response to my crabby:
>> Four of these brains are in the usually active left lobe and are concerned
>> with our terrestrial survival; four are extraterrestrial, reside in the
>> "silent" or inactive right lobe, and are for use in our future evolution.
>> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>> This explains why the right lobe is usually inactive at this stage of our
>> development, >
>> I don't understand why or how the intelligent and informed people on this
>> list keep quoting such gibberish.
>Perhaps you should clarify why this is exactly gibberish.
As Joe mentioned, because, well, um, actually we *don't* have pre-packaged
cerebral modules waiting for an extraterrestrial habitus to activate them,
and certainly evolution doesn't work in such a way as to manufacture such
brain gadgets providentially. But what I was complaining about seems to me
so self-evident I hesitate to spell it out. The right lobe of the brain
*isn't* either `silent' or `inactive'. Take a look at CAT scans, PET
scans, or olde worlde EEG traces known to the ancients long before Doc
Leary had his first white light flash. You might as well cite a document
claiming that the human male left testicle is `immobile' or `inactive'.
Anyone making such a claim, even as a kind of zoned-out metaphor, trips my
bogosity meter *big* time.
>Since you seem to be suggesting that models of intelligence positing the
>existence of brain states beyond the conventional linear styles of thinking
>are gibberish, what are your alternatives?
I'm not suggesting that. Most brain states have nothing to do with
thinking, linear or otherwise (whatever that means).
Damien Broderick
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