La vita nuova

what is mind?

The sum of all choices and experiences, genetic predispositions and the imagination. This definition of mind restricts the discussion to humans and all (even imaginary) human-like beings that will be henceforth referred to as humanoids.

When we use the expression "that machine has a mind of it's own" we're using metaphor. Specifically the metaphor is MIND IS ANIMATION. We don't literally mean that it's doing any thinking or imagining. This is true, even with all modern computers. These computers have no self-input. With us, it's different. We see, and smell and feel. We make decisions based on experiences in hopes of having more experiences. We have a soul.

Does that mean that nothing else can have a soul but a human?

If we imagined aliens from another planet coming to visit earth. Walking, talking, eating, breathing, reproducing aliens; we would grant they have not just life, but a life like we have. Similar in all the ways that each of us is the same. Most people would agree that we're more the same than different, as spectacular as our differences may at sometimes seem. Because of such, these humanoids can also be said to have a soul.

You and your neighbors all have a soul. It's the thing you have now that no longer inhibits your body when you die. Thus all entities we declare "alive" have some sort of soul. When they cease to exist, they're gone forever.

Back to the original question, when we look at what we consider "mind" we see that wherever it resides, it's not in the brain alone. We externalize our mind in many ways. The cognitive work done by the mind is shared between the brain, the body and all of our surroundings. We read books, and put them back on the shelf. We browse webpages and leave them bookmarked. We build infrastructure, and machines that cut down on our need process thought to accomplish tasks. A simple kitchen counter, for instance, alleviates our need to find different surfaces for everything in the preparation of a meal. Lined paper helps us keep things written down straight, facilitating both the reading and writing of the literature.

So it's very possible our mind to live on in the world around us, well after our soul has expired. In the memories of those that survive us, and in everything we touched; metaphorically speaking. Mathematics, science, fashion; Engineering, medicine; Art; these practices and systems of thought are all ways that we folks with minds have learned from, and advanced in, our world.

No entity then, would we grant the honor of recognizing mind, unless it has it's own thoughts. Unless it changed it's behavior in different environments and learned from every new experience. Observing, learning, touching, then repeating all this many many times until someday it has what we call feelings.

The entity would naturally then feel ways about stuff. When it's experienced itself in the shoes of other mindful beings, it recognizes certain similar situations. This human or humanoid would then develop tendencies to respond to those situations in keeping with it's experiences, learnings and imagination.

Those tendencies we would label "a mind of it's own."