Concepts / Mind

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. At least that’s a Cartesian way to think about it. Current theories of mind refute Descarte’s separation of body and mind.

Theories of mind have serious ramifications for the design of digital identity.

An illustration of a brain with the words "This is not a mind"

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