Re: Religion center in the brain

In article <45087d88$0$24213$9a6e19ea@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Wolf K <El_Lobo_Viejo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Presumably an organism could perceive a visual stimulus even
if it (the organism) comprised only a head (on a hypothetical
life-support system if you like)? The rest of the body is not
needed for perception to take place.

This is a rather odd statement, considering that we can and do get
visual information from touching an object. Eg, shape, orientation.

Of course, but what I was trying to do was to pare down the
hardware requirements for some still-meaningful subset of
perception. The fact that people without fingers can no longer
handle objects doesn't prevent them from perceiving them visually.

So what is the minimum
hardware needed to allow visual perception? A brain and an eye
would be sufficient, I think. To demonstrate to other organisms
that perception had taken place, a fluttery eyelid might also
be necessary.

Your question makes no sense without a clear and well-defined notion of
"perception." You imply that some sort of response that signals that
"perception" has taken place is necessary. OK then, try this:

I think my question makes =some= sense, but maybe not as much as
you appear to be demanding.

The minimum hardware is a light sensing diode connected to some
activator (eg, s witch that turns on a light or closes bell ringing
circuit, or whatever.)

That's fair counterexample.

But I don't think that's what you consider as "visual perception." I
suspect that you have responses like "I see a tree" in mind when you
refer to "visual perception."

Show the disembodied eye a picture of a tree with the question
printed underneath: "Is this a tree? One flutter for no; two for
yes." Repeat until convinced (or not) that perception is taking
place (in the eye-brain).

This discussion is wandering all over the place and getting nowhere
because the posters have differing notions of "perception", which is bad
enough. But it gets worse: most change their notions every time they
write another sentence.

Oh dear - have I done the same without realising it? :-)

Francis
.

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