Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Reply to comment

nafisam's picture

In class on Thursday, it

In class on Thursday, it was mentioned that much of our actions, or I suppose what would be considered outputs, are a result of activity generated from within the nervous system. How does the nervous system generate an input all on its own? Is there something such as an input generating an input? Or perhaps a stimulus for an input? We defined input to the nervous system as something that activates sensory neurons. So perhaps sensory neurons are responsible for activating sensory neurons, which reminds me of the idea of boxes going all the way down forever…

  Also if most of our actions are dictated from within the nervous system, does this mean that everything outside the brain is just a construct of our imagination? Perhaps Dickinson would think so. I have a hard time accepting the implications of this, in the fact that physical objects are seen almost uniformly by  all people. Everyone can identify a chair, and has associated the image of a chair with certain actions, such as sitting down. Although everyone has a unique brain, why do we behave in a predictable manner in specific situations? It would seem that since there are an almost infinite amount of combinations of neurons, which are each their own “computer”, that all humans would be vastly different, and any foundations, such as social norms, would not exist. Given the fact that they do exist, perhaps outside influences such as culture and social norms tend to even things out, and account for the similarities in behavior among specific groups of people. But in general given the variations in neuron architecture that exist between humans, it's pretty mind boggling to think we can all co-exist (for the most part).

Reply

To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
14 + 3 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.