Shalten tells Everard:
"'...though the cells of the body be many, the works of the body are naught save that the spirit order them.'" (p. 67)
Does Shalten mean that there is a literal "spirit" distinct from the body but ordering bodily "works" in the same way that Everard had ordered some "'...well-coordinated teams...'" (ibid.) of Time Patrol agents? (That is the context of their conversation.) How much is known about the mind-body problem in Shalten's era? Has it been solved? Is it soluble? When is his era? When Everard had asked where-when Shalten was from, he was told:
"'You don't need to know...'" (ibid.)
Why not? Is Everard likely to be captured by enemies who would benefit by learning about Shalten's home era? Maybe. Everard is about to tackle the last remaining Exaltationists.
The brain does not seem to receive orders from anywhere outside itself. It has no Cartesian centre that might serve as a link to an immaterial entity. Instead, electrically firing and electrochemically interacting neurons somehow generate consciousness but how? For practical purposes, mental processes are unified around a sense of "I" although this can break down under pressure. I cannot say that brain processes are unified around a sense of "I" because we can describe the brain without ascribing any consciousness to it. This is the mind-body problem.
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