
Originally Posted by
NNet

Originally Posted by
Pong
NNet, would you say the actions of individual cells are controlled by instincts? I'm guessing your broadened definition excludes them but I wanna confirm before I go on.
No, by instinct I mean actual instinct and emotions only. This does not include any other aspects of the brain, I think. Anything else which causes basic goals can be added.
Good. Now consider the grey matter from a reductionist point of view. It's made up of neurons, each one doing what it must to survive.
The basic rules of this game are elegant:
(1) a neuron may branch out and connect with
many other neurons,
(2) a neuron may receive an impulse from one or more other neurons, that branched
to it,
(3) a neuron may only signal upon receiving a signal,
(4) a neuron that receives no signals will atrophy and eventually
die, and
(5) a neuron that self-stimulates enters death spiral of increasing positive feedback.
So mature grey matter is made up only of those neurons that have played the game strategically, in their own interests you could say. This cooperative game of survival thrives on impulse loops which exit the body through motor nerves, affect the world, then re-enter the body through sensory nerves, all to find however roundabout means of keeping coalitions of neurons stimulated. To a neuron, the outside world is just another strategic recipient and giver of signals, that conveniently buffers against deadly feedback. Of course cells don't have awareness or intentions; rather they're subject to selection by the game rules. The essentially dumb complexity-building activity of these cells, taken as a whole, is what we call "thinking".
Largely hypothetical. But how do you like that rebuttal to "everything controlled by instinct"?