Ever have a post eaten? Ever have a computer or the internet act like it has a mind of its own? Supposedly, sophisticated air traffic control computers and such are being immunized against possible infection by "mentons" -- mental particles, like negative vibes by air traffic controllers and pilots -- this is what I heard some time ago -- could be bullshit I dunno. I believe at least one university is studying this, the way mind can perhaps influence sophisticated computer equipment, or even simple random number generators and even mechanical things like flipping coins. Anyone who knows about this or anyone with just cool incidental stories is welcome, thanks. Edit: Who the fuck am I to say who is welcome on an open forum. Everyone is welcome. Post whatever kind of crap you like, I always do. These are after all stoner forums so we give ourselves a little lattitude in going off topic. lol Sometimes, I could tell when my old computer was about to crash, I could feel it telling me it was being forced to process more information than it was meant to handle, no shit, trippy. And as a musician, I could get into the circuits of a Mini Moog. Really. With some Pink Eye Pyramid, but it was doable.
We choose our timeline, and timelines are infinite. What's important is if you are of a high enough consciousness to be aware of this.
The ghost in the machine, makes me think of Ryle and his critique of Cartesian dualism and philosophies post-pragmatism dependent on the old dualist dogma's. The ghost - the immaterial substance, res cogitans - primarily the mind, existed in the machine, res extentia, the physical body, but it remained a mystery how these interacted. Your argument runs along such lines, can machines think? If you are a realist, materialist and maybe eliminativist, then yes, machines think like people, as minds are just mental states, processes in the brain tagged with the word 'mental' to make it seem more natural. Computers, machines, technology, etc, runs on millions of codes or programs of syntax, this coincides with Fodor's language of thought hypothesis, that thoughts have syntax. Taking these two together it leaves with a woefully inadequate account of the mind, the difference between mental life and computers, but can be strengthened with science and all that brain, mind, psychology stuff. Dualism, well, there is no way of telling if a machine can think because hey - where do you locate a non-physical mind? What is the substance of the mind made up of? Answers welcome. Actually, that could be an open challenge, what substance is your mind made up of? Problems with syntax or some overarching technology which is programmed, like when people say brains are programmed, why do we make mistakes.
The self ('x') - the subject - is a reality. Descartes was right, although, mis-understood (due to the limitations inherent within language and syntax); and, I don't blame him, for, trying to impart an understanding of his intangible visions of the self to the masses, during his time, would be no easy feat.. "One is obliged to admit that perception and what depends upon it is inexplicable on mechanical principles, that is, by figures and motions. In imagining that there is a machine whose construction would enable it to think, to sense, and to have perception, one could conceive it enlarged while retaining the same proportions, so that one could enter into it, just like into a windmill. Supposing this, one should, when visiting within it, find only parts pushing one another, and never anything by which to explain a perception (i.e., the subject). Thus it is in the simple substance, and not in the composite or in the machine, that one must look for perception, i.e., subjectivity." "But in addition to the general principles which establish the monads (or atoms) of which compound things are merely the results, internal experience, i.e., the subjective, refutes the Epicurean [i.e. materialist] doctrine. This experience is the consciousness which is in us of this 'I' or 'x', i.e., the subject, which apperceives things which occur in the body. This perception, i.e., subjective experience, cannot be explained by figures and movements."
Well considering the computor does have all peices of technology, from gems, to chips to lazers wires etc.. Gems have a orderd pattern seqeunce microscopictly engraved inside them, i wouldnt say youd call it alive but i defently think somethings going on when you mix electric currents, intensified beams of light and crystals.