If one were to position their hand upon their head, they would simultaneously and unwittingly find their palm resting just above a swarm of unintelligible possibility. For just beneath their fingertips, a hundred billion neurons deliberately hum in a rhythmic and ostensibly random tangle of dance. Electrical signals whizzing in every direction, somehow operating within a maze of a hundred-thousand miles of blood vessels.
It is breathtaking and fantastic and a bunch of other descriptive words all at the same time. And while this activity of untold potential sits atop each and every one of us, it does not mean shit to the ordinary person. And why should it?
Our individual lives are helplessly brief. It is perfectly acceptable, nay, agreeable, to dismiss the details and live to live. And, while that is all very well and good, for the sake of something that will hopefully soon become self-evident, I encourage you to cast aside inhibition and let curiosity kill that cat for a change. Think about the money you will save by lack of a litter box. Think antithetically.
Allow your mind to clear itself of abstraction and clutter and imagine a temporarily empty white space. Whence your white space is constructed, begin to paint a mental picture, focussing intently on the conclusions your mind draws.
A fictitious character enters your white space. Let’s call him Jim. Scratch that, perhaps a Greek name like Theseus. Sometime around the fifth-century B.C. Theseus has this ship, thus he becomes Captain Theseus. Yada yada yada, Captain Theseus sets sail with his heart bent on a journey of a million miles. He leaves port and a long while later, having completed a million mile journey, arrives back at the same port in the same ship.
However, all along the way, the ship experienced wear and tear, its planks shuttering at every crashing wave. This came as no surprise to the Captain and as a plank reached its expiration it would be quickly and quietly replaced. One plank after another was swapped for a newer and sturdier piece. In fact, by the time Theseus and his ship returned to the port after their long journey, the vessel did not consist of any of its original parts. Every piece of wood had been replaced, as the crew had changed one plank by standing on the support of the rest and so on and so forth until all of the old had been replaced with the new.
Now the question for your mind to answer is whether or not Theseus returned to the port on the same ship with which he left. There are arguments that can be made no matter which answer you feel more cozy with, however, Theseus’ paradox--as it has become to be known--proposes an interesting perspective in a variety of thought experiments.
Take for example the aforementioned brain and its billions of neurons. It is perhaps the one thing that provides the ultimate definition of... well, you. You can lose your arms and legs, your nose, your eyes, hell, you can live with a different heart or without a heart at all. There are liver transplants and blood transfusions, the list goes on and on. But, without a doubt, the one thing you cannot replace is your brain. The point I am making, albeit in more words than are necessary, is that if we compare the human body to the Ship of Theseus it is not unfathomable to deduce that you are still you as long as you have your brain. Lose everything else but the forest of vessels and neurons within your skull and you will forever be you.
Thinking in terms of this contemplation, it does not seem illogical to make the jump that the brain is, for all intents and purposes, a truly exceptional thing. In matter of fact, it is arguably the exceptional thing. Think about it. With a thorough understanding of one’s brain and dare I say it, control of one’s mind, the possibilities are conceivably endless. I would go as far as to assert that every problem you experience can in some way be solved, mitigated, contained, or even avoided altogether by means of harnessing the capability of the brain.
