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From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <ddanehy@siebel.com> Subject: (whorl) mechAnIsm of consciousness Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 15:15:17 I think the [correct/best/proper] explanation of (eg) Rose's [memories/personality/consciousness/soul] [infiltrating into/integrating with] [that/those] of pMarble/Molybdenum] may be simpler than what [Shellac/Dan P] [suggests/proposes]. Who is to say, in a universe where [souls are (in some sense) demonstrable fact/consciousness can (apparently) exist independently of hardware], that the brain is the [sole/primary] seat of [soul/consciousness/memory/personality]? It makes a kind of sense that [it is/they are] [more distributed/less local] in the nervous system and perhaps other [organs/parts of the organism/tissues], particularly if one accepts that [it is/they are] at least partially [spiritual/non-physical/supernatural] in [nature/origin/constitution]. Then a(n) [organ/part/tissue] which has spent a significant time in one body, even if it is not an original [component/part] of that body, [may/will] "house" some [aspect/part/holographic image] of the [soul/memory/personalty/consciousness] [inhabiting/controlling] that body and, when [transferred/transplanted] to a [new/different] body may carry that [aspect/part/holographic image] to the [new/different] body. On the contrary, allowing that "souls" specifically are [non-physical/spiritual/supernatural] in [cosntitution/nature] allows us to [suppose/believe/conjecture] that "souls" may habituate to their bodies (as they may habituate to a location, giving rise to phenomena such as Pike's ghost), and "hang around" remaininf functional [parts/organs/tissues] of the body after the death of the body proper, so that whatever aspect of [memory/personality/consciousness] attaches to the "soul" rather than physical [tissues/organs/parts] might in fact [transfer/travel] along with them and "inabit" the [new/different] body. Now, isn't that ever so much simpler than [Dan/Shellac]'s ultraphysicalist explanation? --[Dan'l/Blattid] *This is WHORL, for discussion of Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. *More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.moonmilk.com/whorl/ *To leave the list, send "unsubscribe" to whorl-request@lists.best.com *If it's Wolfe but not Long Sun, please use the URTH list: urth@lists.best.com