From: Zeb Haradon (zharadon@inconnect.com)
Date: Sun Dec 19 1999 - 21:25:13 MST
-----Original Message-----
From: hal@finney.org <hal@finney.org>
To: extropians@extropy.com <extropians@extropy.com>
Date: Sunday, December 19, 1999 7:15 PM
Subject: Re: The Second Brain
>J. R. Molloy, <jr@shasta.com>, writes:
>
>> The Second Brain: The Enteric Nervous System
>>
>> The gut contains a very large number of nerve cells, the enteric
>> nervous system, which can act independently of the brain to control
>> movement of food, its mixing with digestive juices and its absorption
>> into the blood stream. Over the last 2 decades we have identified the
>> types of nerve cells that control the movement of food within the gut
>> and we have identified the ways that these nerve cells communicate with
>> each other.
>
>How would we approach the problem of whether our guts have qualia? And
>if they did, who would "I" be? Would I have two minds, or would I be
>my brain and my gut would be someone else?
Unless you are typing with your stomach, "I" is the brain situated in your
skull. The gut may be very complicated, but I doubt it has much use for
complex thought. As a "self" it's probably not much more complex then a
worm.
>
>How about Dennett, what does he say about the question of whether systems
>like the gut are conscious and/or have qualia? Is this a meaningful
>question in his ontology?
No - in his ontology, nothing is conscious or has qualia.
>
>Hal
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zeb Haradon
My personal website:
http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~haradon
A movie I'm directing:
http://www.elevatormovie.com
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