Mind

From CasGroup

The mind is simply what the brain does. It is related to the Self and is considered as responsible for one's thoughts and feelings. It is an abstract concept which describes all of the brain's conscious and unconscious cognitive processes. Although it does not exist as a single, unified substance, it emerges from the coordinated action of a group of agents and acts to orchestrate them in turn. In this sense, the coordinated hallucination of people is often associated with a team spirit or god, while the coordinated hallucination of neurons is associated with the personal spirit, the soul or the mind.

We know that everything in the physical arises from atoms. Genes shape life-forms and contain the blueprints of bodies. In the world of abstract thoughts and systems, everything arises from ideas. Memes can shape culture and civilization, organizations and communities, or theories and theorems. Together, cultural memes and biological genes shape the mind, this wonderful combination of thoughts and behavior patterns based on a universe of neural assemblies and brain chemicals. How exactly is often the question.

There are many theories of the mind and its function, which are the subject of Psychology and Neuroscience. The society of mind approach tries to explain the mind as a society of agents (or CAS).

Mind and Memes

How many memes does a mind have? What would be needed to reconstruct a mind? Can we (re-)construct minds from different parts or pieces ? Is there a blueprint for a soul (whatever that is)? If genes are blueprints used to construct bodies, then maybe memes can be considered as blueprints to construct minds.

An autobiography is maybe the thing which is perhaps the most similar to such a blueprint. One difference to genetic blueprints is the temporal relationship: genetic blueprints exist before the life of the individual, whereas autobiographies exist only after the life of the individual. During our life, our personality is reinforced and we become more like ourselves.

Yet autobiographies of other people and ancestors can be used to "build new souls". "Holy books" are often autobiographies of famous prophets or represent the history of whole countries and cultures. Maybe stories, fairy tales, myths, "holy books" and belief systems in general (or all set of rules and ideas which specify the right kind of behavior) can be considered as "memetic blueprints" to build souls? Are they the scripts which contain the rules that direct our plays?

If a body is a 3-dimensional entity, how much dimensions does a mind or a soul have? How many memes are needed to "make a mind"? I would say it depends. Maybe at least as many dimensions as roles which a person plays. A person plays many roles, related to nationality, language, family, work, etc. Each role is associated with a bundle of behavior patterns or a set of memes. Do you agree?

Links

• Wikipedia entry for Mind