An incomplete essay on an ill-defined subject

I sometimes wonder about who we are…. Yes i know that many people wonder about that and that many people have written about their wonder…. But that doesn’t stop me from wondering and i write about it because….. well, because….. Because I CAN!!

Anyway, moving on… who ARE we??? Are we what we believe we are? or are we what OTHERs believe we are??? OR do we start believing and thus BECOME what others think we are?? This line of philosophical questioning ofcourse has been done to death and the debate is endless…. And so, having found no enlightenment with the philosophers i looked towards the scientists (who are only barely removed from philosophers in their ability to confound and confuse)…. well anyway, turns out there is quite a lot of concrete science that’s been done and is being done with a view to answer questions about the brain, behaviour, and the big question “what does it mean to be conscious??”

Now… it’s not my place to try and explain to you about the work of these scientists… I just wanted to share with you the (fairly useless) bit of information that there exists a body of work in this field which is slightly better than the certifiably insane reasonings of philosophers…. Slightly better in the sense that its not certified insane…. though many believe it to be quite mad….

For those of you who are interested in the science of cognition and behaviour…. A good place to start might be Dr. V.S. Ramachandran’s book “Phantoms In The Brain”…

For an insight into genetics and behaviour… Try and get any book that might give you info on Seymour Benzer’s work…. There’s a book called “Time, love & memory” which is quite good…