The Human Brain

[Stephen Whiteside]

Is there any more complex structure in the known universe than the human brain?

The human brain, in a form that has been largely unchanged for the past million years, has been quietly picking away at the mysteries of the universe, passing on information from one generation to the next. It seems at last to be finally getting somewhere, with knowledge now increasing at an exponential rate.

Of course, it is just the latest model in a great range of hominid brains. Perhaps it, too, will eventually be superseded. I wonder what will replace it, and when?

[Glenny Palmer]

Sadly, probably a microchip.

[Stephen Whiteside]

No, I don't think so.

[Terry]

Ah Glenny

The rise of the machines!

Does that mean we'll have to put up with Arnie all over again?

Terry

[Vic Jefferies]

Always been puzzled: where in the brain is the mind?

[keats]

Hi Stephen, are we talking the female brain or the male brain? I have been told they are completely different (by my wife).

Neil

[Neville Briggs]

Vic has the right question.

At the Big Bang, where was the mind ?
Can the personal arise from the impersonal. In other words can gases and dust produce a mind.
What part of DNA constructs thought.
Since the scientists can confidently tell us what took place millions of years agoi then they should have some scientific evidence to answer these questions.


As Neil might have alluded to, the hardest question of all, how does a woman's mind work ?

[Heather]

Neville I think you should take up fly fishing....

[Neville Briggs]

Will fly fishing explain the female mind ???

[Stephen Whiteside]

I don't think they can confidently tell us what happened billions of years ago. That's the point. They're searching for answers, and constantly refining what they think on the basis of new information.

Clearly, the 'Big Bang' was far from a conventional 'explosion'. For example, if you blow up a stick of dynamite, the maximum velocity of the explosion occurs initially, and slows down exponentially. Yet the speed that the universe expands is constantly increasing. That's weird!

Can the animate come from the inanimate? I think we have to assume it can.

Was there a mind present at the time of the Big Bang? I think we have to assume there wasn't.

DNA obviously doesn't create thought directly, but it does control all the elements that do - or so the current evidence would lead us to believe.

What were the other questions?