If you spread the neurons in your brain out to 10 times their current distance, would you still be conscious?

Question

What about 1000 times their distance? What about 1 million miles apart? What if you also changed their size so that they were the size of people? Would that arrangement of 1 trillion giant neurons each 1 million miles from the nearest neighbor be conscious?

What if they were re-engineered to comunicate from that distance in the same effective manner?

Sansfear: I think your consciousness is tied to a pattern of information and communication of that information, not the matter involved.

SuperAtheist: Do you think that any system with those three properties will be conscious? Systems of people exhibit all of these too. Perhaps that human system would be a very slow form of consciousness as I have described with the distant neurons.

Answer 1

Brains are able to be conscious - that is, to work - because of three characteristics:

o Their relative arrangement
o Their synaptic interconnections
o The internal 'weighting' put on each synapse

If you were somehow able to separate the neurons in a brain by the distances you describe, while simultaneously maintaining their connections, then it could work. Otherwise, not.

It would be horrendously slow, however: neural electrochemical impulses are quite slow, such that they take hundreds of milliseconds to travel the length of your body. Millions of miles would mean dreadfully long impulse times.

CD

Answer 2

Spreading your neurons out any more than maybe twice their distance would definitely result in either paralysis or unconsciousness. Your brain depends on certain chemicals residing between the neurons to assist with the transmitting of electrical and other signals. Spreading the gap out results in spreading the chemicals out as well and results in what could be called poor reception or "conductivity" between the cells which then leads to a "malfunction" of the brain. It would stop functioning a manner need to be conscious due to the interruption in signals. There would be enough for the body to remain alive but any more than twice the distance I don't know. You'd probably be vegetable or dead at that point. It may seem like such a small distance but even as much displacement as your reffering to would result in dramatic damage to the brain and body. It's all very refined and delicate, just barely balanced up there in your head. hope this helps.

Answer 3

You're making the critical assumption that we all have a brain when I, in fact, have met numerous people who have told me I am braindead. So would I still have neurons spreading all over the continent? I mean.. wouldn't someone have to split your head open to spread those neurons.. yuck icky Why did you ask such a violent question anyhow? I'm going to go pray for you now.. bye (please still give me 2 pts tho.. i want breast implants later)

Answer 4

I can't say. It kind of makes one question his own consciousness. What does it mean exactly? I would say yes, but I can't. Edit: I misread the question. If they acted like neurons in a brain, I believe so. I don't believe it's possible though.

Answer 5

You need to ease-up on the acid trips you're doing. Try pot instead it's much more relaxing. You just need an eighth, a dark basement with an old TV and a raggedy old couch, and a 5 gallon tub of ice cream. You'll be much happier, trust me.

Answer 6

Nope, you would be dead.

But think of it this way. The cells in our brains are continually dying off and being replaced, so within 10 years, your brain will consist of matter that is completely different than it was 10 years before. Yet our consciousness and sense of history remains. So is it reasonable to state that consciousness is not tied to matter?

EDIT: It very well could be, which would explain instinct.

Answer 7

i'm not sure neurons are about distance as much as they are about activity

thank goddess mine are quite active

Answer 8

I did it on a loaf of bread, and I was still conscious....

Answer 9

Your picture is freaky!

I like your hair though.

Answer 10

No - severe head trauma/injury