Radio Head

Every once in a while you see the idea expressed that the mind might be pure consciousness, and that it's only "physicalized" when it interacts (in some unspecified way) with the organ of the brain -- sort of like how a radio receives radio waves from some transmitting source.

Call this model TRM (for "The Radio wave Model"). TRM actually has a lot going for it, at least, to the extent you've got a yen to save dualism: (1) It acknowledges the crucial role of the physical brain in realizing conscious behavior; yet (2) it preserves the intuitively appealing autonomy of the self (free will!) over and above physical causation; and (perhaps best of all) (3) it plausibly explains the physical (neural) correlates of consciousness in a way that still resists physicalist reduction.

Still, as a philosophical or scientific sketch, TRM is a nonstarter. The main problem, of course, is that while a radio receiver can modulate transmissions and interpret them in myriad ways, turning the radio off doesn't make the radio waves disappear. But apparently that's just what happens when we turn the "radio" off. It's not hard to think of examples: Certain types of anesthesia; sleep (in some stages); a well-aimed blow to the head; and so forth. What these all have in common is that they're result is counter to what TRM predicts: Immutable, disembodied consciousness.

(Via Butterflies & Wheels.)