all the fears you hold so dear, turn to whisper in your ear

ok, so i think that the meltdown earlier stemmed from a sever epistemological crisis initiated by a conversation with UNT's computational neurology prof. it would seem that he is a proponent of epiphenomenalism... think hardcore behaviorist but instead of pretending the mind doesn't exist at all they just think that its an accidental side effect of brain activity with no actual control over the activity of the brain. while clearly a philosophical point of view, he seems to be sure that it is the only reasonable aproach to neuro-science that does not bring unsupported assumptions into the process.

a key feather in the epiphenomenalist hat is a series of latency experiments that claim to show that we don't experience a conscious feeling of making a choice until after the brain has already made the choice, thus proving the conscious mind superfluous. to me the major flaw in this logic is that the experiment only shows that there is latency in reporting a conscious experience. it says nothing about whether the brain activation is the experience of making a choice and the reporting gets put off for a few milliseconds, or (according to the claim) that the mind is simply getting a memo from the brain telling it that it made a great decision. and there are other possible readings of the experiment that can go either way.