The brain IS the personality

[Anomalous_Reading]

@mswas

I don’t know about that. I’d think that tastes were determined more by the endocrine system than the nervous system, as the food we eat has more to do with the chemical composition of our bodies than it does the signals being fired along the neurons. Though, that’s an interesting track to go down. I’ll give a lot more thought to how taste is developed from now on. Thanks.

Just to throw things around… taste is an evolutionary tool that keeps us alive. It is fundamental and certain tastes are hardwired to be avoided (as they are unhealthy) and others are more preferred. It’s all a game to keep us alive. While taste preferences are unique in kids is a proof that some of a person’s tastes are shaped early and largely without information. It helps make the case that some of the personality is in the brain. But not all of it.

And besides… not everyone has the same ratio of tastebuds for sweet-sour-bitter. Are we sure this is all brain?

[hotflungwok]

@Anomalous Reading

Just to throw things around… taste is an evolutionary tool that keeps us alive. It is fundamental and certain tastes are hardwired to be avoided (as they are unhealthy) and others are more preferred. It’s all a game to keep us alive. While taste preferences are unique in kids is a proof that some of a person’s tastes are shaped early and largely without information. It helps make the case that some of the personality is in the brain. But not all of it.

And besides… not everyone has the same ratio of tastebuds for sweet-sour-bitter. Are we sure this is all brain?

The taste buds are just sensory organs. Whether or not the person likes or doesn’t like something is determined by the brain.

[Gozu]

@hotflungwok

Huh? Until we have absolute technological control over the brain we can’t touch the personality? Why? We know where it is, why do we need to have that level of manipulation over it before we can be said to touch it?

It’s a question of semantic precision. Punching someone could also be said to touch his personality, or making them eat poop or really delicious cake, or taking them under the sea, ad infinitum. The difference between all these interferences in the person’s environment and touching the brain with a scalpel is simply a matter of proportion.

[hotflungwok]

@Gozu

It’s a question of semantic precision. Punching someone could also be said to touch his personality, or making them eat poop or really delicious cake, or taking them under the sea, ad infinitum. The difference between all these interferences in the person’s environment and touching the brain with a scalpel is simply a matter of proportion.

Well, it depends on what definition of ‘touch’ you’re using. In the case used in the OP, the touch is physical.

Der Trihs was trying to explain that, according to absolutely all evidence humanity has right now, everything that is a person is in their brain. We have lots of evidence of the brain being the person and none that there is something else in charge. He tried to shorten this by saying that ‘brain = personality’, and mswas argued against that. If the brain is it and there is no other outside element of a person, then the brain and what it contains, can be touched.

Really, that’s the argument here.

[Kozmik]

According to Dr. Katrina Firlink, who is one a the few female neurosurgeon’s in the nation, the brain* is * the personality. I know this is arguement from authority, but what an authority! If you are interested you might want to check out her book, Another Day in the Frontal Lobe, which is actually an entralling read and also gives her perspective on consciousness and the brain.

[Anomalous_Reading]

@hotflungwok

The taste buds are just sensory organs. Whether or not the person likes or doesn’t like something is determined by the brain.

My point continues to be missed. Sure… the brain is the ultimate arbiter of what is good tasting and what is not. Even so, not all brains get the same information. With just the difference of the taste bud ratios… some would find different food appealing - or not.

If I gave you the eyes of my son… you’d experience red differently. Why? He’s color blind. Different information, different response. Trust me - a power tie won’t have the same effect on him as it would on others.

We tend to forget the degree to which information is filtered before it reaches our brain - and how much more it is filtered or reassembled before it reaches our consciousness.