Ion Manolescu, Mind Vs. Brain

Caietele Echinox, vol. 26, 2014: Possible Worlds: Fantasy, Science-Fiction 292 Ion Manolescu Mind vs. Brain: The Cyberpunk Dissociation ABSTRACT One of the most consistent debates in This study deals with the cognitive science recent cognitive science, particularly in cog- issue of mind vs. brain functioning. In terms nitive neurology, psychology and philoso- of cognitive neurology, psychology and philo- phy, relates to a fundamental question: can sophy, it seeks to depict an image of the mind- the mind be split from the brain and, as a brain-body relation which contradicts the result, “deposited” and studied away from “Unitarian” position. In order to show that the its recipient? Or else to phrase this in medi- brain can operate without the mind’s know- cal terms, can the non-physical entity of the ledge, and even make decisions against the mind be separated from the physical entity mind’s resolutions, I chose to provide theore- of the brain, in order to get a clearer view of tical examples from two main cognitive areas its processes? of research (the computational theory of mind Although, traditionally, mental activity and the information pattern theory) and fic- and brain activity are considered to be one tional examples from cyberpunk literature and the same thing, while subjective experi- (Bruce Sterling and Rudy Rucker). Both cog- ence remains forever connected to and de- nitive theories allow us to understand the brain pendent on the physiological organ that pro- as a computing organ (the hardware), whereas duces or shelters it, during the last four dec- the mind is regarded as its unfolding of ades, numerous theoretical studies and fic- programs (the software). As for cyberpunk tional contributions (based on substantial neu- fiction, it illustrates several post-human robot- rological data provided by brain imaging tech- ic and cyborgic dissociations of the mind- niques) convincingly brought forward re- brain-body traditional unity: either the brain sults contradicting or even reversing the o- operating outside the body, or the mind opera- pinion that there is no such thing as a “mind ting outside the brain. functioning outside the brain” or a “brain functioning outside the body”. As this study KEYWORDS Cognitive Science; Neurology; Computational will try to demonstrate by means of neuro- Theory of the Mind; Information Pattern psychological information and fictional il- Theory; Cyberpunk Fiction; Bruce Sterling; lustration (extracted from cyberpunk litera- Rudy Rucker; Post-Human Condition; Mind- ture), the living brain could be separated Brain Dissociation. from the mind, and even from the human body. Moreover, well shielded from the out- ION MANOLESCU side world by its strong, encapsulating skull, Bucharest University, Bucharest, Romania it will often do things that the mind is nei- [email protected] ther in control of, nor aware of. Mind vs. Brain: The Cyberpunk Dissociation In terms of the dissociation model, the functions (FIND, SCAN, 293 mind vs. brain issue can be tracked back to ZOOM, ROTATE and so on) two main scientific theories: the computa- showing the same kind of tional theory of the mind and the theory of properties as a computer (indication, config- information patterns of the mind. Both are uration, integration, repositioning, reorienta- elaborated after 1980 and need to be seen as tion, alteration etc.). The better the neural mutually beneficial. Since these theories re- computer works, the more efficient the im- ly on a computer-based model of the mind- age-processing quality is (1980: 171). Three brain activity, they can be perceived as part years later, pursuing his cognitive research of a larger cyborgic psychological and phil- in Ghosts in the Mind’s Machine. Creating osophical view on the post-human con- and Using Images in the Brain, Kosslyn dition. suggests that a deconstruction of the mind- The computational theory of the mind brain relation would prove useful to better was developed by cognitive neuropsycholo- understanding how mental images succeed gists, such as Stephen Michael Kosslyn in representing absent objects or beings. (1980; 1983), as well as by philosophers Consequently, he describes the human brain such as Daniel C. Dennett (1978; 1981, with as a cybernetic device, constantly processing Hofstadter) or Douglas R. Hofstadter (1985; mind programs during one’s lifetime span.1 1981, with Dennett), who added their per- Kosslyn’s idea, almost chronologically sonal expertise to the field. Hofstadter, for coincidental with that of mathematician and instance, was specifically interested in find- fiction writer Rudy Rucker, author of sever- ing answers to the endless paradoxes of the al cyberpunk novels on the mind-brain com- mind, embodied in self-referential sen- putational relation, is illustrated in the cy- tences, drawings or musical parts – a most berpunk fiction of the eighties and nineties challenging issue, but with less consequence of the 20th century by the human comput- to the arguments of this study. erized upgrading theory, described by writ- In Stephen Michael Kosslyn’s view in er Bruce Sterling in his novel Holy Fire as Image and Mind, mind imagery results from “posthuman self-actualization” and “the a brain activity that is similar, in many software functioning of the soul” (1997: 70; ways, to that of a computer (1980: 5-6). At 330). Deconstructing and displacing the lo- the top of this process of imagery produc- cation of mental activity, while conceiving tion, maintenance and representation, the it as a computerized derivation of the human mind is conceived as a complex system of brain, is also a key point of the cyberpunk computational operations generated by the theories of mind-brain-body dissociation in neural computer of the brain. To put it in Sterling’s novel Schismatrix Plus (1985). another way, for Kosslyn, the brain is the Here, one of the characters, the cyborg-wom- computer of the human body, while the an Kitsune, casually tells her lover, Lindsay, mind is its succession of programs. Both that, through cyber-surgery, her sexual or- enable us to solve each and every problem gans have been replaced by a sample of her that comes to our attention, in order to find brain tissue, thus placing the computerized the best solution for our individual survival. center of pleasure (initially situated in the In order to provide arguments for his neuro- brain) directly in her vagina (1996: 34). computational assumption, Kosslyn builds Later on, in his book with Olivier up a theoretical model of image-formation Koening, Wet Mind. The New Cognitive processes, in which mental operations are Neuroscience (1992), Kosslyn describes the compared to and described by computer two main computational cognitive ap- Ion Manolescu 294 proaches to the mind-brain the brain provide a satisfactory answer to issue (the Dry Mind approach the problem of mind-brain splitting? Can and the Wet Mind approach), the human brain be successfully separated seemingly shifting his research interest to from its cranial shelter, without altering the the latter. In the Dry Mind approach, spe- mind processing events taking place in or cific to cognitive psychology, the central outside their physiological recipient? And, metaphor is regarded to be the computer: even more daring, could we even think of (regardless of the fact that we still disagree Just as the information processing op- on whether we “think” with our brains or eration in a computer can be analyzed with our minds) reshaping the brain, after without regard for the physical ma- detaching it from the body, such as the hard chine itself, mental events can be ex- of a computer can be detached from its base amined without regard to the brain. unit, and, in the process, preserve and copy This approach is like understanding the its most valuable item: the information properties and uses of a building inde- processes of the mind? pendently of the materials used to con- Since the eighties, this both philosoph- struct it; the shapes and functions of ical and neurological question has been ad- rooms, windows, arches and so forth dressed by numerous theorists, logicians, can be discussed without reference to medics, AI researchers and robotic scien- whether the building is made of wood, tists. For instance, the famous physicist Ste- brick or stone. (1992: 4) ven Hawking can be regarded as the living proof of Daniel C. Dennett’s mind experi- In contrast, in the Wet Mind approach, ment Where am I?, developed in Brain- specific to cognitive neuroscience and backed storms. Philosophical Essays on Mind and up by magnetic resonance imagery and Psychology (1978). In Where am I?, Den- computerized scanning of the brain, “[…] nett suggests that a schizophrenic decon- the mind is what the brain does: a descrip- struction of the unified body-brain-mind tion of mental events is a description of concept, based on a cyborgic model that brain function, and facts about the brain are would hypothetically work by separating the needed to characterize these events.” (ibid.) brain from the degradable body and the As a result, the computational theory of mind from the degradable brain, might just the mind takes two separate courses of ac- solve the problem of conscience preserva- tion: one separating the hardware of the tion: as long as body/ brain disposal does brain (the living computer) from the software not influence the process of information pat- of the mind (the processes derived from the tern transmission and maintenance, our hu- living computer), in order to psychologically man individuality can be safeguarded (1986: and philosophically understand their differ- 310-23). ences in decision-making, and the other su- Dennett’s philosophical experiment perposing hard and soft, so as to neurol- and the questions that arise from its trou- ogically explain the nature of information bling conclusions may just be mirrored in processing that allows the brain to produce the location and identity issues of real post- and externalize human behavior (1992: 50).

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