The driving force for thought and action consists in the dynamic instability of the brain and its proclivity to always seek novelty, fulfillment, stimulation, safety, power, and other goals that it perceives.“
My addition to these thoughts is that this information is support for the argument that our glial/astrocytes hold or instantiate the goals listed above in a distributed manner
Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 17 2022 18:11 utc | 202
Thank you for your reply.
I take issue with paragraph 1’s statement ‘the brain seeks novelty, fulfilment’ etc. because I find it muddled. The brain is a physical organ in the body but ‘seeking’ is a mental-emotional phenomenon. Mind is not physical. It has no location or dimension so cannot be measured, aka quantified ie is not in quantum physical or conventional biological purview.
Materialists will argue, understandably, that mind is an epiphenomenon of the brain, an hallucination conjured up by various chemicals and neurons and suchlike. But this is an unfalsifiable, and therefore unscientific, statement – a guess, a belief, a subjective impression.
It is equally possible that the brain and body are epiphenomena of Mind, as are matter. For example, if we hypothesize that physical reality is the result of God’s Dreaming we can state the the dreaming comes first and the perception of solid matter in a three-dimensional environment is the result. Mind and the wish to perceive come first and the development of physical sense perceptions and bodies to carry them around in three-dimensional, seemingly-solid space comes after.
This is no less unfalsifiable than the materialist supposition. My personal theory about the brain is that it
a) processes sense perceptions into
b) a neuronal matrix which projects 3-dimensional and temporal context with which to interpret it, a process shared by most living creatures in our continuum albeit species see things quite differently
c) generates a mind-field which influences and connects with other beings in this matrix so that we all see the mountain in the same place at the same seeming time together, or buildings, bodies, forms etc.
Most individual intelligence on the physical level is on the microbial level. We see bacteria functioning much like flocks of birds, the overall collective communicating somehow with each individual component albeit not physically linked. Bacteria inhabit a mind-field somehow, like iron filings exhibit the existence of a magnetic field and shape themselves on paper around a magnet accordingly. The filings are not nearly as much a driving force as the magnetic field. Similarly the body – and brain therein – is not nearly as much a driving force as the mind/consciousness field in which their material form takes shape and functions.
Now the Buddha warned people not to go down these rabbit holes, listing 16 questions/issues which should not be addressed. I don’t remember them offhand right now but one of them was not to try to define the difference (and/or inseparability) between mind and body, or you could also say space and form. But we Westerners like to pontificate and speculate about such stuff so what the hell…

Posted by: Scorpion | Sep 17 2022 22:40 utc | 204

Forgive if this already linked, but it’s a good piece I missed a couple of days back but is now on my friends site linked with my post name. It’s on Strategic Culture so if someone wants more because they cannot access I can paste in more.
https://strategic-culture.org/news/2022/09/14/why-sergey-glazyev-memorial-to-the-legacy-of-lyndon-larouche-matters/

Why Sergey Glazyev’s Memorial to the Legacy of Lyndon LaRouche Matters
Matthew Ehret
September 14, 2022
Glazyev’s thinking is rooted in an old and powerful intellectual current that derives from a strong tradition in Russia based upon state credit, national sovereignty, large scale infrastructure, scientific progress and win-win cooperation.
On September 11th, 2022, the brilliant Russian economist, grand strategist and leading architect of the emerging new multipolar financial architecture Sergey Glazyev delivered a remarkable memorial address on the life and work of his friend and ally Lyndon LaRouche (1922-2019) who’s 100th birthday was celebrated on September 8th).
Within the powerful 13-minute address, Glazyev outlines the root causes of the current unfolding systemic financial collapse ripping across the western world which his late friend had forecasted well over 30 years ago. He goes further to present a striking program for a global recovery and reform of globalization which has taken the form of the Eurasian Economic Union’s integration with the “Eurasian Land bridge” and broader New Silk Road program which was first unveiled by China in 2013 and which had been advanced by Mr. LaRouche as early as 1994.
The full address should be listened to here:
https://youtu.be/_nkLsgz6fU0
Although several influential western intellectuals have attempted to take credit for Sergey Glazyev’s strategic thinking over the recent few years, the fact is that Glazyev’s thinking is rooted in an old and powerful intellectual current that derives from a strong, albeit forgotten tradition in Russia based upon state credit, national sovereignty, large scale infrastructure, scientific progress and most importantly win-win cooperation.
This school of economic science was vibrantly alive in the days of *Tsar Alexander II, and the network of nationalist statesmen who rose to prominence during the second half of the 19th century with the most noteworthy being the figure of Russia’s great Finance Minister and first Prime Minister Sergey Witte who spearheaded the construction of the Trans Siberian Railway, envisioned a system of state banks and global networks of railways stretching across Asia, Europe and the Americas via the Bering Strait.
In the 20th century, this school was disrupted by the Bolshevik color revolution financed by western intelligence operatives and oligarchs, but was revived in a unique way under the guidance of the great Russian biogeochemist and leading light of the Academy of Sciences Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (1863-1945).
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
There was a developing thrust towards freedom from bankster hegemony which many leading lights in the world were inspired by from young America’s example. Unfortunately, America’s promise was snuffed out by successful Bank$ter interference culminating in the 1913 creation of the Federal Reserve after the disastrous Civil War in which far more Americans died than in either iteration of the Great War of 1914- 1953. But the Eurasian sovereign state vision was alive and well under the Tsars. Unfortunately old enemies from Khazaria had other plans. The rest, as they say, is history…
++++++++++++++++++++++++
*Alexander II (Russian: Алекса́ндр II Никола́евич, tr. Aleksándr II Nikoláyevich, IPA: [ɐlʲɪˈksandr ftɐˈroj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ]; 29 April 1818 – 13 March 1881)[a] was Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 2 March 1855 until his assassination.[1]
Alexander’s most significant reform as emperor was the emancipation of Russia’s serfs in 1861, for which he is known as Alexander the Liberator (Russian: Алекса́ндр Освободи́тель, tr. Aleksándr Osvobodytel, IPA: [ɐlʲɪˈksandr ɐsvəbɐˈdʲitʲɪlʲ]). The tsar was responsible for other reforms, including reorganizing the judicial system, setting up elected local judges, abolishing corporal punishment,[2] promoting local self-government through the zemstvo system, imposing universal military service, ending some privileges of the nobility, and promoting university education. After an assassination attempt in 1866, Alexander adopted a somewhat more reactionary stance until his death.[3] {by assassination}

Posted by: Scorpion | Sep 18 2022 0:55 utc | 206

Congrats to Hungary’s president Viktor Orban for securing the nomination for this year’s hybrid electro autocrat. That sounds green !
https://stormer-daily.rw/eu-votes-to-label-hungary-a-hybrid-regime-of-electoral-autocracy/

Posted by: Featherless | Sep 18 2022 4:15 utc | 208

Featherless | Sep 18 2022 4:15 utc | 210
I sure didn’t know about that disgusting site you linked to. Says a lot about you and now you will also get to be blocked.

Posted by: dan of steele | Sep 18 2022 9:03 utc | 210

I have a memory that Nasrallah set a deadline of the middle of September for a resolution of the questions around Lebanon’s off-shore gas fields (?)

Posted by: R*ss | Sep 18 2022 10:08 utc | 212