[Utah]

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So, if this is correct, the mind doesnt truly think or create anything. Rather, it simply classifies the environment within which it lives.

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I think you need to clarify what you mean by 'think'. I consider 'thinking' precisely what the mind does, pretty much by definition.

What is it, precisely, that you believe the mind ISN'T doing, that we previously would have thought it WAS doing?

[/ QUOTE ] Creativity. Thinking of ideas that are unique and invented from whole cloth. Being able to extrapolate correct responses with incomplete or new sets of parameters without using hardcoded rules. We are simply a biocomputer drone with an instruction set with sophisticated input/output capabilities.

We are no different than a computer than can read a single digit input. It can read that input and execute some output. Given that it knows 1 and 2 it may be able to understand 1.5 because it can use previous classifications. However, the computer has no concept of ice cream.

The human operates the same way. The human mind has no ability to conceptualize anything that is not gathered from inputs - sight, smell, touch, etc or is originally hardcoded. In fact, a human cant conceptualzie at all. It can merely recall classifactions from memory. We have no more ability to break out of our environment than the computer does.

Note: I may be 100% wrong. I just dont see the flaws yet in the argument. But, there may be lots of them [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]