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stork daddy
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gnostic or grandmother cells. A theory of the mind which proposed that each memory or mental representation had an exact place in the mind. Therefore, there was a part of your brain which when activated produced grandma. It is conceivable if this theory was true that grandma could then be removed from your brain if a precise enough neurosurgery was possible. Gnosis translates to knowledge. Other theories suggested that grandma is activated when enough "grandma" qualities give it critical mass. So the features of her face would be wired to the concept of grandma, but so would the smell of certain cookies or the sound of her voice. This allows concepts to be spread over the entire brain and to interact in meaningful ways. Still, it isn't clear if there is only this gestalt like conglommeration or if there is also an abstract representation of grandma which is created and stored and updated when the relevant properties have been associated and the word grandma becomes a concept capable of interacting with other previously unrelated concepts, as a noun, as a person, as a family member. Gnostic cells, therefore still provide a useful model for at least one function of the mind.
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