Some neuroscience and psychology – Dialogue with Arne Dietrich – D45

Today, at 11:15 a.m., Arne Dietrich visited us. He is a neuroscientist specialized in creativity, and found out about the MPC because he is a friend of Dylan Evans. The dialogue went pretty well. First, we made an introduction about what the MPC is, and read our dialogue rubric, which he suggested some changes and questioned it a little. Then, he talked about who he was and what was his specialization. After that, the dialogue was about many psychology things, but especially about the future of genetic engineering and the emotions. One of the many remarks he made was that the control for knowledge and modifying human brains is evolving very fast and we can reach a point were a society may have the resources to become more intelligent and developed than another, and (as I understood him) be able to gain control over other society. Some utopia/dystopia, kind-of a Brave New World/1984 world. Another important remark was regarding a question I asked him about whether psychological diseases activate chemicals in our brains or if first there is a chemical reaction in our brains that triggers a psychological disease. His answer was that what I said was a dualism, but we have a third option that is that they are the same. In other words, there is no psychological state, no mind, psyche, or any metaphysical thing you want to call it. The psychological state and the chemicals released by our brains is the same. It was a very interesting dialogue that I think everyone enjoyed a lot.