I wrote this in a conversation on whether or not thoughts were physical or some form of energy linked to the soul, with that energy not being destroyed on death per the conservation of energy.

I'd like to widen the reception of this just to hear more people's opinions on what I've said.

A brain surgeon could certainly touch "thoughts," in that he could touch the neural clusters they are contained in. However, an astronomer can't touch the sun or any distant star, but he could calculate its mass, shifts in its electromagnetic field, and even how fast it's spinning.

Insofar as transformation of energy is concerned, energy is a physical thing. For example, photosynthesis converts energy from light into the energy binding atoms in glucose. However, in this way, any form of energy can be converted to any other form of energy: solar sails convert light into kinetic energy, solar panels convert it into electrical energy, and any change of energy results in a portion of thermal energy.

It is reasonable to say that a thought comes from a transformation of energy, but neurological science shows us that it isn't its own form of energy. Neurons release concentrations of salts in response to stimulus, with the salts transferring their ionic energy to the next neuron in a chain. And, the larger the clump of neurons the more complex the manifested thoughts are. With smaller creatures such as fruit flies, scientists have been successful in manipulating these neural pathways to force certain reactions given a stimulus.

However, the human mind is simply so massive in comparison to a fruit fly, that the work to properly map and simulate a human brain would take decades of research and computing power even further away. This certainly has not stopped researchers from trying however.

This article might be a good read if you're interested: [wired.com]

Here's a link to the original post:
[agnostic.com]