Another Brain Related Riddle

A brain has never had any memory. Not a single nanosecond. Is it conscious?
With no memory at all of anything at anytime, can it process anything and keep consciousness?

Write your opinion, and tell me if this one is harder or "A neurological riddle to solve" is.

Remember, what may seem like the perfect answer may just be the limit of your reasoning power!

Are you asking if it can never hold any memory for any amount of time regardless of what happens, ever? Or are you simply asking if it is conscious with no previous memory what so ever.

If the latter, I would have to say it is concious. It would simply start gaining memories.

If the former, I would argue it is not conscious. If it can't keep memory for any amount of time, even a nanosecond, that means it's neurons can't even process sensory information. It does take some amount of time (a few nanoseconds maybe?) for sensory stimuli to travel the neurons to the brain and be processed. If it can hold no memory for even a nanosecond, that would mean the neural networks could not hold onto any amount of information long enough to even process it. So no, a brain that can not function is not conscious.

It is an invalid question. To ask if it is conscious without every having had thought or sensory input is not different in response to the previous problem. However, to ask if it has consciousness or the capability to process information without a nanosecond of memory is invalid, as the very act of doing so creates memory.

Is the initial process that generates the first memory possible? Yes, lest we would never become conscious ourselves. Do we have consciousness prior to this initial development of memory? Yes, for the same reasons we have consciousness prior to any sensory input (see other thread, I can't be bothered rewriting it all).

As Iron Angel has noted, it is critical to the question on whether the brain *has* not held memory, or *can* not hold memory. My response is based upon the former premise, purely for a lack of reference from yourself indicating the latter.

It starts off the same way, but it can take a long time to go deeper, and possibly end up with the same answer, but a much deeper and more explained answer.

A friend said she knew that animals did not have any form of memory whatsoever, so I just threw this thought into my thought pool.

Why have reference for such an unknown question? Basing yourself on something else will limit you.

I don't think I agree with the initial premise that a brain has never had a memory. Emotional memory, for example, can start being encoded in the fetus in the amygdala. Explicit memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory, which involve the hippocampus, does not start until around age 3. Conditioned reflexes are referred to as implicit (or procedural) memory and can start in the fetus. Whoever said that animals don't have any memory whatsoever is just not educated.

A brain has never had any memory. Not a single nanosecond. Is it conscious?

If this brain from inception has recorded no memories of any sort from any source, it would be like a blank cd. No, I think it would be more like a potato. It would have to have something to be conscious of to be conscious. Wow, Dan, you come up with some real toughies!
I'll leave this to Digital and others to wrestle with. Whew.

Dan (Edmond) wrote:A friend said she knew that animals did not have any form of memory whatsoever, so I just threw this thought into my thought pool.

A lot of people claim to "know" something when really they only think they know or believe something which is entirely different.

I think it would be pretty hard to prove animals have no memory. I'm pretty sure many of them do in fact have some memory, however primative it may seem compared to ours.

Yeah puma, they can be tough sometimes. I just got back from a 3 hour bike ride in which I hadn't eaten in 24 hours. Therefore, typing almost hurts!

Thanks for all the replies!