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by yters 2365 days ago
Isn't the answer to these sorts of questions pretty trivial? I don't understand why people think such questions are defeaters for the mind != brain hypothesis.

Why does bending my TV antenna have predictable effects on the signal I receive? Why doesn't this imply my TV signal is produced by the antenna instead of received by the antenna?

Answer these questions, then apply your answers to your questions.
1 comments
Viliam1234 2362 days ago
When you fix the TV antenna, the movie continues with the original plot. When you get sober, you may not remember what you did when you were drunk.

The act of forgetting is itself interesting. How is the information removed from the immaterial mind, and why things like having enough sleep have an impact on how much the immaterial mind remembers?

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yters 2362 days ago
Why do you get a bad recording if the camera lens is smudged, if the camera is not the lens? Why do forget stuff more easily if you don't write it down, if your brain is not your notebook?

I still fail to see how these sorts of arguments show the mind must be physical. We have many examples of interfaces, where damaging the interface can impact the transmission, but does not thereby entail the interface is the transmission.

On the other hand, why do amnesia victims sometimes regain their memories, and even more(!), after brain damage if the mind is just the brain? Why can people live normal, even high performing lives, while missing most of their brain if the mind is just the brain? How can we explain out of body experiences, where the person learns information they cannot have learned any other way, if the mind is just the brain? How can consciousness arise from non sentient matter? How can we think about immaterial, abstract concepts if mind = brain?

In my opinion, the arguments for mind = brain largely depend on logical fallacies, as explained above. And, there are also phenomena that are very difficult and even impossible to explain if mind = brain is true. Additionally, I haven't gotten into this, but there are a number of thought experiments that indicate mind = brain is logically incoherent. So, the most parsinomous explanation is that mind != brain.

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