“Mind is empty; it is no-thing. It exists only in its ideas, and these again are no-things.”
As for those ideas, the “smallest unit of mental process is a difference, or distinction, or news of a difference”, which aligns with the definition of information as “any difference that makes a difference.” (Bateson, G. 1979)
On the one hand then we have the bodily definition of a person, including her brain, a biological organ; and on the other hand, we have the informational nature of mind, a no-thing that isn’t bound by a corporeal entity by definition.
This observation has serious ramifications for the design of digital identity.
LINKS
- Bateson, G. (1979). Mind and nature: a necessary unity, 1st ed, New York: Dutton.
- Koestler, A. (1967). The Ghost in the Machine. Hutchinson.