Our brains don't 'process information' like a computer

originally posted by: InTheLight
a reply to: TheRedneck

I just don't believe that the biological energy we create in our brain can be the same 'stuff' that we call electricity.

Biological energy, if you want to use that term, and it's very fuzzy, would typically be found in energetic chemicals like ATP. That extra phosphate group has chemical energy that nearly every enzyme in your cells uses to 'power' reactions.

There isn't any special thing like "life force" though. It's all chemistry.

originally posted by: Bedlam

originally posted by: InTheLight
a reply to: TheRedneck

I just don't believe that the biological energy we create in our brain can be the same 'stuff' that we call electricity.

Biological energy, if you want to use that term, and it's very fuzzy, would typically be found in energetic chemicals like ATP. That extra phosphate group has chemical energy that nearly every enzyme in your cells uses to 'power' reactions.

There isn't any special thing like "life force" though. It's all chemistry.

If it is all chemistry then it may be that we just don't yet know which chemical reactions cause life to become animated, and structure DNA in such a way as to bestow us with consciousness, complex brain functions, and a spirit from non-living matter. Perhaps it is a combination of many factors and processes, culminating in an evolutionary process of achieving ever-higher cognitive functions. Computers and AI are composed solely of non-living matter, so how would one introduce the 'spark of life' and make it stick?

I can not agree with you on the non-existence of a force of life, because we have no definition of the energy forces at work in the creation of consciousness and spirit as it pertains to highly complex human beings.

originally posted by: InTheLight

If it is all chemistry then it may be that we just don't yet know which chemical reactions cause life to become animated...

A good start is anaerobic glycolysis, pyruvate conversion, the Krebs cycle and oxphos. That's where life becomes animated. At least, it's where the energy comes from for a lot of aerobic cells.

You get into simpler life, you do simpler and more oddball things to make ATP. A lot of anaerobes stop at pyruvates and NADH, others use sulfate reduction or weird crap like succinate reductions. But those are pretty rare.

At any rate, the goal of all of these is to make ATP. It's what makes cellular processes go around.

Your cells are marvelously complicated little machines, made up of water and goo, horrendously complex.

a reply to: Bedlam

There isn't any special thing like "life force" though. It's all chemistry.

I think it might be more accurate to say we haven't identified a life force yet.

The human body is a marvelous machine, and for the most part we have some idea of how the processes work. But there are still areas we do not understand; intelligence is the forefront of that ignorance. I can explain Pavlovian response to stimuli, but I cannot explain how imagination works or how self-cognizance works.

I can't discount another force being in play until all the questions are answered.

TheRedneck

originally posted by: TheRedneck

I can't discount another force being in play until all the questions are answered.

TheRedneck

No point in assuming yet another basic force in physics when nothing else seems to call for it. Especially for something as complex as consciousness.

a reply to: Bedlam

I think you misunderstand my position. There's a lot of difference between assuming existence and not discounting possibility.

TheRedneck

The machinery and technology required to store memories in the brain is amazingly sophisticated and cleverly designed (in terms of efficiency, longevity, energy usage, adaptable functionality, order and organization, size, etc.):