Thought

What would we be if we didn't have thought?

Mindless zombies???

Slaves of idiocy

Slaves to instinct, more aptly.

Calmer

politicians!

EDIT

sorry Jestor, that was thoughtless of me :blush:

Rickie wrote: What would we be if we didn't have thought?

It depends what you mean by thought... do you mean self aware thought? Some animals have thought to a degree..

Tree's!? Some processing is required to forage, and breed at the least, and the rest of it.

Slaves to instinct, more aptly.

Only someone with thought would consider themselves a slave to anything.

I imagine we wouldnt be much different from bacteria.

Of course, our nervous system, etc, probably wouldnt exist, as our bodies are connected to our brains....I suppose you could mean something like a vegetative state, which you can look up on Youtube.

Its fairly terrifying in its way.

I have cared and do care for those with no brain function, and its a very..strange experience existentially.

Well, I didn't think it through insomuch as I consider what bacteria to do "instinctual"... maybe that's the wrong word. Perhaps just... there? They just do what they do.

Our thoughts are our very essence of being human. Everything starts with a thought. Thoughts create. If it weren't for a thought we wouldn't have anything other than what is in our adjoining environment. We wouldn't have evolved to our status of supreme being on earth without thought. Thought will carry us forward. What we imaging eventually happens. Our limits are as unlimited as our thoughts. I think this is very exciting.

“Imagination allows us to conceive of delightful future possibilities, pick the most amazing one, and pull the present forward to meet it.”
― Jason Silva

Adder wrote: Tree's!? Some processing is required to forage, and breed at the least, and the rest of it.

Motility alone is not enough. Things move for a few reasons without 'thinking' about it such as along a chemical gradient, temperature gradient, light gradient, magnetic field line, electric field, the direction of the gravitational force, a rigidity gradient, a gradient of cell adhesion sites, and along other cells or biopolymers.

There is no contemplation or decision by some part to do those things in stuff like bacteria, its just the function of their design to react to the environment locally where it interacts with the environment ie automatic.

The capacity to process information and make decisions really sets apart somethings freedom to choose where to move. So I tend to stick with the nervous system as the requirement for thought.

For contemplation about it, I'd first divide it into sub-conscious and conscious domains of thought.

Then I'd then define awareness as that conscious thought. I think the OP is about this specifically.

Then I'd associate modes of thought which I'd trace as relationships to levels of awareness, either directly or indirectly.

Some modes might be.... a contemplative 'engine' wielding memory 'processors' being fed by subconscious maintenance 'circuits' together producing conscious body and environment modeling which has available to it conscious motor control circuits and systems, which are all overseen by instinctual action circuits. This then would be a good foundation for the emergence of 'state' from a referential framework which can create the condition/illusion of being 'alive' - a permanence or continuity through time. The details in the memory then give rise to the rich image of identity and self.

All this is as a result of the nervous systems engineering. So anything without a nervous system would need something analogous to it for me to feel comfortable thinking it had a capacity to think in the way I interpret 'thought'.

So looking at that different degrees of function in different parts of that system would have different effects on ones state of mind and awareness, and their subsequent decision making. If your contemplative engine was on the fritz you'd be very up and down, emotional and selfish perhaps. If your subconscious maintenance systems were out of tune you might be having more illness and sleep problems. So as a result of either or both of them the modelling might create imbalances felt as strong feelings, which would create disproportionate associations into the memory processors, leading to distracting emotions. Or the other way if you've bad memories it might distort the modelling by accidentally meeting conditions to recruit the instinctual drivers, again causing imbalances.

But all this is academic, you were made as well as we could make you. The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long.... wait, I just went all Blade Runner again!!

:silly:

TLDR;
Anything simpler then animals tends to look like just biological machinery with no will. We are biological machinery as well, but the nervous system in us creates/carries a highly complex state of information, and since it's within the nervous system I'd interpret that as the location of thought. In simpler forms of life that information does not get centralized or processed, and instead is just acted upon locally depending on the functional design of those particular sites and the environmental conditions.

All just IMO.

Speaking of my fav movie;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbkV9jN0YKQ

Should anyone ever think they are in a position to really judge though? It's my best guess at the moment.

Then I'd then define awareness as that conscious thought. I think the OP is about this specifically. [/q uote]

I'm more of the line, look where thought has gotten us so far and what/where will we be going forward.

What you conceive and empower through thought becomes reality in some form or another. Lao Fzu

Our minds unlock our potential and our potential is only limited by our imagination.

Thought is part of the trinity (Thought, Word, Deed). Without thought, we probably wouldn't exist.

If we were not thinking we would be in state of contemplation, that is, in full meditation. A mind free of thoughts obviously not forcefully, but of course.
That's my view, no one was specified as the scenario of the situation :laugh:

MrBruno wrote: If we were not thinking we would be in state of contemplation, :

I think we would be dead. Mediation/contemplation (which I think is reflective thought) calms the mind but the mind is still thinking/working. IMHO

In my view our conscious and unconscious thoughts, together with the brains that generate them make up pretty much everything we are short of the bodies hosting those brains. Thoughts are to us what food is to a lunch. A lunch without any food is... well, not a lunch, at least. In much the same way, we without thoughts isn't us, if it even is anything at all.