"do you wonder how do we feel a sense of "personality" and consciousness based on nothing more than electrical signals firing off?"
This is one of the central questions of cognitive neuroscience today, and scientists aren't even close to a convincing answer. It is exactly the wrong question for an ask HN post -- it's like a bunch of sailors speculating about quantum mechanics. Please read the papers. Here's a great introductory video for a lay audience -- Dan Dennett's TED talk: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dan_dennett_on_our_consci...
I do sympathize with your point that the abstract scientific jargon seems to leave one wanting for a "real" answer, but since the science itself is way incomplete at this point, any attempt to pare it down will result in something that's no better than random guessing.
> I agree though, that outside of one or two people (robg?) , most of us aren't very knowledgeable about the subject.
The neuroscience side, yes - but I think the philosophical implications are anyone's game (that's the beauty of philosophy really - no license required).
Actually that's the retardedness of philosophy. See Dennet's TED talk. By the way, thanks to those posting on this thread for introducing me to Daniel Dennet.
I had mentally categorized philosophy as "verbose wanking by a bunch of people who would rather win debates than understand things," until watching his lecture.
This is one of the central questions of cognitive neuroscience today, and scientists aren't even close to a convincing answer. It is exactly the wrong question for an ask HN post -- it's like a bunch of sailors speculating about quantum mechanics. Please read the papers. Here's a great introductory video for a lay audience -- Dan Dennett's TED talk: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dan_dennett_on_our_consci...
I do sympathize with your point that the abstract scientific jargon seems to leave one wanting for a "real" answer, but since the science itself is way incomplete at this point, any attempt to pare it down will result in something that's no better than random guessing.