Mary: Those definitions come from information I gathered while researching. I have found that Chinese has a rich vocabulary for the mind. For example, thought (思), imagination (想), meaning (意), and memory (念). These 4 characters are of the type huiyi (会意), words that we can infer their meanings by the combination of the radical and the other part.
思 (心+田), si, thinking = mind + farmland. Thinking is like plants/weeds growing/decaying in a farmland. Seeds become plants that reproduce seeds again.
想 (心+相), xiang, imagining = mind + appearance. Imagination is images playing out in the mind.
意 (心+音), yi, meaning = mind + sound. Meaning (or wish) is the inner voice that resonates.
念 (心+今), nian, remembrance = mind + now. Memory is a reflection of past events in the present moment.
There are several other Chinese words like these. But taking them all on at the same time is biting off more than I can chew. So I focus my research on just one word: 念, memory, the precursor of the Western word mind. The other aspects of mind seem to be closely related to memory.
Allegory of Memory. A man writing; representing the faculty of memory. Engraving by T. Jenner (?), c. 1650.
http://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/image/V0007658.html
Pedro: Neat. So memory is the key. A big part of computer data processing is also memory - storing, indexing, retrieving. Everything about computer memory, both software and hardware, is known. But when it comes to human memory, neuro-scientists and computer scientists are still scratching their heads. It is a big mystery how and why it works.
Mary: Is that right? I sort of expect so.
Pedro: Yeah? Why is that?
Mary: Because everything about computers, memory or otherwise, is designed. It’s created by people and materials that are isolated and arranged in a specific way. Computer scientists in general don’t socialize well. Computer circuit boards similarly will be buggy if you leave them exposed to coffee or cake or pets. The human brain, on the other hand, is evolved, not designed. Evolution comes from interactions. The brain thrives when exposed to external stimuli, and withers if isolated. Such different patterns make me think brain and computer share very little in common.
P: The Internet is like a brain. It’s also evolved, not designed. And the Internet is certainly not like a computer. So when the mind remembers something, what is going on in the brain? Have you found anything that may solve this puzzle?
M: Yes we have. And it has something to do with evolution.
P: We? Who’s we?
M: I mean other people have studied and thought about this before. I have not come up with all the information by myself. I only dig up what they leave behind and put two and two together.
P: Oh, I thought it’s your boyfriend or something.
M (smiling): No. I don’t have a boyfriend.
P (smiling also): I’m single too. Please go on with what you’re gonna say.
M: OK. In the 20th century a key mechanism of evolution process has become largely understood. That mechanism is cybernetics. Cybernetics can be a context to describe human memory. However, biological scientists are not familiar with it yet, even though cybernetics is relevant in almost everywhere in the natural world. This is probably due to history. Alfred Russel Wallace, the lone naturalist who first noticed the relationship between evolution and cybernetics, was eclipsed by Charles Darwin in terms of the popularity of their evolution theories. The word 'cybernetics' comes from Greek κυβερνητική (kybernetike), meaning "governance". It is cybernetics that guides robots to imitate actions of intelligent creatures. However, many people are worried about robotic intelligence. Remember that movie Terminator where Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the villain cyborg? Those robots built by the Cyberdyne Systems Corp. become self-aware and take over control of the world. Well, in reality cybernetics itself is not a sinister science. But playing with matches can be dangerous.
P: Sounds scary. I've seen that movie. But in terms of evolution, do you mean that robots are the next stage of human evolution, like the TV’s Bionic Man? Or was it Bionic Woman?
M: Ah yes, I remember those TV shows with Lee Majors and Lindsay Wagner. I don’t mean robots are the future. No one knows for sure where evolution will take us. The lyrics of the song Que Sera, Sera says, “Whatever will be, will be… The future’s not ours to see…” Anyway, I mean the direction of evolution can be described by cybernetics after the fact . To engineers, cybernetics is a way to control or regulate some behaviors of a system, like the robots at the assembly lines, or cruise missiles that home in on their targets, or pacemakers that help heart beat properly. To scientists, cybernetics is the study of feedback loops that have a sensor and a governor.
P: Words like cybernetics, feedback loops are Greek to me. I’m still not clear what cybernetics is and how it relates to evolution or memory. Can you give some examples?
M: OK. Let's see. I have examples that can be separated into categories: loops, feedback loops, and feedback loops with sensor/governor. Sort of like following evolutionary progression. That should lead us to memory eventually if we don’t get lost.
P: We may get lost, but we may also find something else. Maybe we will find enlightenment, ha! If we find peace and love and happiness along the way that’d be swell, too.
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