Cogito Ergo Sum

From O'Reilly

Cogito Ergo Sum

This famous proclamation by Renee Descartes: I think therefore I am, is perhaps the most profound and important fact about human existence. The only thing we know for sure is that we are here thinking. Dan Lloyd argues this point persuasively in his book Radiant Cool.

The intrinsic subjectivity of human experience, even for those who believe in an objective external universe, places critical limitations on how certain we can be of anything. It means that we have to support our arguments on the basis of self-consistency, instead of logical deduction or simple proclamation of supposed obvious truths. Fortunately, it turns out that my objective understanding of the brain is consistent with the idea that self-consistency is critical for establishing the truth value of any set of beliefs. So consistency is maintained..

Furthermore, I like to add to this proclamation another, which is Cogito Ergo Wrongo -- a silly phrase that means that because we are smart enough to think abstract thoughts, we are very likely to be wrong. This is also an idea that Dan Lloyd developed in one of his earlier books (Simple Minds).

I Am a Spirit Being

The pervasive belief in the human spirit, something that transcends our physical bodies, is entirely consistent with our subjective experience. Our spirit is primary, definitional, axiomatic, inescapable, inevitable. It is what we have always known, and all we will ever know. It is the totality of our experience. Our physical bodies are something that we have to learn about -- they are really a kind of abstraction or contrivance. Certainly everything I know about the brain is not based on actual physical experience -- I read articles and make computer models, but rarely do I actually confront the actuality of a real human brain. It is only within the last 50 years that we have developed any real understanding of how the brain works. So, the objective world is clearly secondary in our actual personal subjective experiences. It is not too much of a leap to extend this to its logical conclusion: the subjective world is so primary as to be independent of the physical world -- our spirits magically transcend our physical bodies and will live on without them.

Unfortunately, this nice, perfectly natural thought seems to be strongly inconsistent with (my) experiences to date. The most consistent story I have for everything I've experienced is that my subjective experience is the product of the detailed structures of my brain, and without that, it just plain doesn't exist. Of course, I have absolutely no way of proving or disproving this idea. Once my brain goes, I won't be around to evaluate my subjective status. If it were the case that people's spirits did persist beyond the grave, in a way that can communicate back with the living, I think we'd have a much stronger evidence for it. I mean, my subjective experience right now is *very real*. If this is really primary, and the brain unnecessary, it seems rather a coincidence that we don't hear more reliably from all those spirits flying around. Furthermore, as I said, there is nothing in my understanding of the objective physical universe that has a place for my spirit to go. And I have a perfectly good explanation for it all by understanding my brain. Oh well. I still have the wonderous amazing inexplicable fact that I'm here thinking about all this stuff! Unbelievable!!!