Mind vs. Brain: The Cyberpunk Dissociation
Mind vs. Brain: The Cyberpunk Dissociation

Summary/Abstract: This study deals with the cognitive science issue of mind vs. brain functioning. In terms of cognitive neurology, psychology and philosophy, it seeks to depict an image of the mind-brain-body relation which contradicts the “Unitarian” position. In order to show that the brain can operate without the mind’s knowledge, and even make decisions against the mind’s resolutions, I chose to provide theoretical examples from two main cognitive areas of research (the computational theory of mind and the information pattern theory) and fictional examples from cyberpunk literature (Bruce Sterling and Rudy Rucker). Both cognitive theories allow us to understand the brain as a computing organ (the hardware), whereas the mind is regarded as its unfolding of programs (the software). As for cyberpunk fiction, it illustrates several post-human robotic and cyborgic dissociations of the mind-brain-body traditional unity: either the brain operating outside the body, or the mind operating outside the brain.

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