tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4512901970142754617.post6217870882294221157..comments2023-10-28T07:08:29.965-07:00Comments on Right Fans: Sci Fi from the Other Side: Trek Tropes: Mind vs. SoulSABR Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00879056167130238382noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4512901970142754617.post-75450944411662059732013-11-15T05:49:31.845-08:002013-11-15T05:49:31.845-08:00Interesting! And not altogether surprising. Pret...Interesting! And not altogether surprising. Pretty much all of Trek canon...not even just the original series, seems to be suffused with the notion that the soul/consciousness can be slurped out of a person's brain like a milkshake. Even after we added neural networking to our scientific knowledge base and it entered into medical descriptions on Trek, we still got a lot of "neural energy = fluid" concepts.<br /><br />Heck, the entire Vulcan mating practice (remember the silly finger rubbing thing?) appears to be the practice of sharing soul juice.SABR Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00879056167130238382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4512901970142754617.post-30403662316917683852013-11-09T17:42:54.938-08:002013-11-09T17:42:54.938-08:00I had a chance to see Gene Roddenberry in the mid ...I had a chance to see Gene Roddenberry in the mid '70s at a local college (Wittenberg in Columbus, OH) wherein he spoke of human minds being taken out of bodies and put into robotic starships, either as a brain in a bottle or as a software simulation--i think it was the former, but could be mistaken. (Remember Spock's Brain?)<br /><br />This, plus the plots of The Lights of Zetar, or Turnabout Intruder, make me think Roddenberry thought of consciousness a bit like folks used to think about heat and caloric--a fluid that was exchanged between hot and cold bodies. I believe he thought consciousness could be poured out of one brain and into another, much like heat flows out of a steaming tea and into a spoon.<br /><br />Keep in mind that science at the time didn't understand neural networks any better than "perceptrons" and had no grasp on emergent properties of cellular automata. However, I believe we're at a point in our understanding of such things that stories like these will be as well-grounded in science as Venusian jungles. Steve Polinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06095291939072131815noreply@blogger.com