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by dotancohen 964 days ago
Possibly not the same particles, though. Baryonic matter condenses and undergoes nuclear transformations in the stars. But if our feelings and memories are electrical phenomenon then they were not formed in stars.
2 comments

I think electrical activity in the brain is misunderstood. These electrical signals are not electrons moving along a wire, they are waves of depolarisation between the inside and inside of the cell membrane travelling along the axon or dendrites. The depolarisation is due to the activity of a bunch of ion pumps and channels that let ions pass between the inside and outside of the cell. Some of these ion channels are themselves voltage-gated, thereby further increasing the depolarisation in response to depolarisation, and propagating the signal that way.

So it's still mostly atoms moving in and out of cells. Still stardust.

It’s all just quantum fields anyway. Maybe it doesn’t matter that much which ones exactly, from an ontological point of view. ;)
Obviously, the patterns weren’t formed in stars. My point is, if you are admiring the body being a pattern formed of particles coming from the stars, realize that the admiration is itself also just such a pattern (as is that realization).
From a certain point of veiw we are nothing but a 3d cellular automata made of subatomic particles in a most extensive run of conways game of life.
not, if the Copenhagen interpretation is right