Here we can interact with an order that is infinitely greater than an organic brain. We can find ways not only to control our world, but we could be promoting the refinement of life in general, the evolution and wellbeing of all life on our planet. We have the potential to uncover self-awareness on a scale that makes even our brightest minds look shallow and petty, is this not desirable? Nature used to do it passively, even before we reached our so called enlightened stage. It’s what gave rise to magickal thinking in all cultures across our planet.
It is, but many people don’t believe in it. Well, they are proving it now. I heard today that they discovered that rat neurons are self-aggregating. They will link together even outside of their natural environment. They proceeded to set up a colony of rat neurons on a chip designed to plug into a computer and deliver electrical signals to the neurons from the system. The rat chip was able to run a flight simulator program. This wasn’t even a complete rat brain. What do you think?
In another instance, they managed to remove and sustain an eel brain in a specially protected chamber. It remained alive, and they were able to integrate that brain with the system on a robot. No programming on the robot, or very little, nothing that would drive the robots behaviour, and with the stimuli delivered to the eel brain from the robots sensors, it was able to identify and move toward light sources. What do you think?
I’m not sure whether to be horrified or impressed.
It puts into question the whole definition of life.
This is more human hacking. Humans insist that they have better ideas than nature does. They overlook much in the name of rational aesthetics, science. But my point is, nature was already doing this. Your brain is not your brain, it’s natures brain, and your judgements and rational thought are not evidence of your evolution, they are a virus, memetic corruption. What part of modern society is not dependant on ignorance of one form or another?
Dependant on ignorance? I mean literally, active ignoring of some set of data. What school of human thought doesn’t rely on breaking things apart to “understand” them? Is there any?
Buddhism? Even it does, but at least it breaks things along natural fissures. It looks at the pre-existing terrain, does anything else?
True, it breaks apart the mind, desire vs attachment. I can’t think of anything that doesn’t confine itself to specific parts and then it claims, “That’s not my department.”
Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.
Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~