The Filter Theory of the Mind-Brain Connection
The age-old question of the mind-brain connection may find its answer in the age-old idea of the “mother-sea” of consciousness and the brain as a filter. Cloud computing and smartphones may help us understand this.
How does the mind relate to the brain? Physicalists are bottom-up thinkers on this question believing that all there is has evolved from the very beginnings of our universe. The fact that we have brains is a result of blind and random forces including the laws of physics and Darwinian evolution defined as the outcome of random mutation and natural selection. Our conscious thoughts or subjective experiences either are an illusion or emerge in a physical process happening in our brains in a way that is not yet understood. Because we live in a clockwork universe with unchangeable physical laws that are the total cause of everything that happens, the thoughts you have as you read this have been fully predetermined. There is no free will. Should you decide you’ve had enough of this post, that decision was set in stone as well. Bottom-up physicalist thinking is understood as the consensus view of mainstream science and is the one adopted and defended by the drivers of our culture including education, journalism and entertainment.
Top-down thinkers do not doubt the reality of consciousness nor subjective experience. Many versions…
