Lousy thread title, but as close as I could get.

This started as a post to the "There Is No God" thread. I decided it was too tangential, so I'm bringing it over here instead.


In that thread, somebody, I think Don Firth, shared a quote to the effect that the universe is not only odder than we suppose, it is odder than we can suppose. I suspect the same is true of the workings of the human mind, as well the brain.

We are in the infant stages of learning about the development and functioning of the human brain, limbic system, the effects of hormones, enzmes, and other neurochemicals. I'm gonna kinda go all over the place in this post, just to lay out some information.

Human beings have a limited capacity to observe objective reality. We do have the capacity to develop tools that can detect what our 5 senses can not, and the ability to interpret and extrapolate from that extra-sensory information. Interpret is in italics, because interpretation can never be completely objective.

The empirical, or 'scientific' method is the best tool we have been able to come up with so far to 'test' hypotheses about those aspects of 'reality' that we have the current tools to discern to some degree or another. And it may be that it is the best method there is. It may be that the only only limiting factor is our capacity for discernment, through our own faculties or the tools available at any given point in time.   If that is the case, those limits on discernment are real, and are huge. And the capacity for discernment varies humongously within and between individuals. Toss in the interpretation factor, and things get 'interesting.' (This is a partial explanation for the widely divergent views in the afore mentioned thread.)

Some one in that other thread observed that we can not observe the content of thought. In the forseeable future, however, the first crude means to do so will be available.   This article implies what those first crude measures will consist of. The possibilities are pretty scary. "Thought Police" could be a future tangible reality. Hope the ethicists get busy on this one sooner rather than later.

Visual perception is one very concrete example regarding perception. Follow some of the linked articles on the greater development of hearing among people who are blind. Ponder perception of reality from individual to individual.

As I said above, we are in the infant stages of neuroscientific understanding. We know this much:

1. Sensory perception begins before birth.

2. In the absence of extreme developmental abnormalities, there are some basic brain structures that all humans have. There are likely some basic functions and characteristics beyond brain stem functions that we all have, but there is not an established 'baseline' for many of these functions. It may be more accurate to say there are likely to be some baseline capacities and potentialities. Even so, the baseline has not been established.

Continued next post.