this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023
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Greentext

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This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.

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If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.

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[–] shalafi 44 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Know what'll really bake your noodle? An MRI will show your brain firing to move your arm before your "higher" brain function sends the signal.

Your brain fires and then sends an executive summary to the homunculus behind your eyeballs saying, "Good job! 'You' moved your arm!" And you believe in free will?

You think that's air you're breathing now?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Don't some limbs move due to neurons in the spine or other parts of the body? Such as when you get burned or struck by something. To make the reaction quicker, it just bypasses the brain

[–] blanketswithsmallpox 11 points 1 year ago

Correct. You're thinking of Spinal Reflexes.

Spinal cord reflexes are simple behaviors produced by central nervous system (CNS) pathways that lie entirely within the spinal cord. The sensory afferent fibers that evoke these reflexes enter the spinal cord and activate spinal motor neurons directly or through a chain of one or more spinal interneurons.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/spinal-reflex

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

basically like a CDN lol

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

“You” really are just an observer of biological programming playing out. Even your “higher” brain functions are still being observed by someone. They are a response to the more “base” biology, but they are still programmed responses.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

"You" is an incredibly tricky word to define. Is your body you? Is your brain you? Is the set of chemical reactions we call consciousness you? Is only the subset of that set of chemical reactions that's capable of saying "I am me" you?

I stuck my arm out towards a cat today and it scratched me. What me did it scratch? If my arm gets amputated because that scratch gets infected, have I lost a part of myself, or have I simply lost some thing that belongs to me?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I think it’s best to define “I”. Your sense of self is constructed from the biology of your brain. Your “ego” or the biological and mental character you are observing and observing through is not “I”. Your thoughts, your feelings, sensations etc.

Under all of that, observing everything, is “I”. The only irreducible thing in the universe. “I” am consciousness, the observer that can’t be observed. The only thing that the more you try to grasp, the less it’s possible. But still the more you learn. Because the only thing that IS, is I. Reality emerges from consciousness, not the other way around.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

It's not even one brain, it's two chunks that function as one whole. Patients who have had a corpus callostomy (splitting the membrane connecting the hemispheres) can find one of their limbs going against what you're trying to do.

If you're getting dressed, for example, your left side may refuse if it doesn't like what you're wearing. It can do totally random things and sometimes people have to use their controlled hand to physically restrain the other.

They think the left half of the brain is responsible for speech and communication, so the right remains this silent observer under the thumb of the left when the connection is intact.

But it has its own will, even if you don't know it.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Electricity. Humans are electronically controlled, that's how.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

We were the robots that killed their creators the whole time.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

If you have psychic powers raise my hand!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

When I think about how I move my limbs my brain starts melting.

You think about moving your arm, but you don't actually think about it, you just do it, so how do you move it without thinking that's what you're doing?

[–] HonoraryMancunian 5 points 1 year ago

Conscious vs subconscious thought

[–] Eh_I 9 points 1 year ago

Try not to think about it.

Try very hard not to think about it.

[–] NateNate60 5 points 1 year ago

Anon tries marijuana for the first time