Rational Scientific Theories from Theism
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Footprints of the Mind in NaturePreliminary PointsSince
I ask: Are spacetime modulations the footprint of mind?The speculation occurs that mental influx directly influences the patterns of events, by changing their probabilities. This is (perhaps!) accomplished by one (or more?) of the following means:
Of course, from the physicalist or materialist point of view, the observation of any spatiotemporal correlations with brain waves would lead to the suggestion that 'brain waves are equal to vibrations in spacetime', and then maybe the epiphenomalist view that 'mind is equal to vibrations in spacetime. But we know where mind really comes from, and how. This speculation, however, does not satisfy all the requirements given previously. For example, it is not clear how spatiotemporal event patterns could (a) have the three dynamical steps 3.11, 3.12, 3.13, (b) have permanent effects, (c) 'attract' particular patterns of influx for perception. We need a more precise idea of the processes and orders involved here. Modulating the spacetime metric is not something easily done, and, if done, would have very dramatic physical effects. The biggest effect is gravity. A first-order analysis of the effect of variations in the spacetime metric guv shows that the gravitational potential V directly depends just on g00 (where x0 = time). This means that any variation in temporal rate g00 that is in a confined space necessarily induces gravitational forces on a mass m as F = mc2 grad g00 . These do not appear to be present in animal brains, so rendering unlikely the simplest account above (1.) for spacetime modulations. |
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