Thought as something else

Thought is the process of navigating through previous memory traces,
while navigating through present impressions,
while trying to solve the problems that we imagine will take us closer to our goals, or problems that we are merely interested in and focus on in order to clarify our mental system,
and putting at least some parts of them together in a coherent way, that enables us to do all the above.

It is physical in a sense that it is a process. It is based on physical memory traces and perceptions, under the influence of our motivation, and the combination that ensues thereof.
It is not a magical substance, yet it can't be easily captured by supervising the physical traces that it is navigating. Mainly because it is not programmed, it can lead its own way through all these traces, it can get distracted, it can rebuild memories.

There is no cartesian divide to be found, yet it is befuddling how some people can't see past it. Of course thought is "something else" than physical in certain ways - it is a process, not just its physical traces. It is emergent and happens in a now in the sense that all these traces are observed and felt and activated in the light of current preoccupations, goals, states. And representation is not an object, it's just the perceptual and representational traces it leaves within us.

 I can see why people would think thought has somewhat of a vague, eerie, ethereal nature (which makes them see it as a different substance), but those are all qualities that ensue from the principle of a trace, and activating various parts of it in various moments, from the emergent in the present nature that thought has through compositionality with current state, and the changes it goes through. It is only magical to the extent that it is complex, self-guided, unique, elaborative and in creative people quite hard to predict, although a small part of that can be done if you really understand the shapes of thought they prefer, their processes, cognitive, processing and aesthetic style.

It is hard to define thought as a substance in the pure physical sense, and we have this feeling of it being mysterious and ethereal because it is not a substance, it is a process. A process of navigating and activating part of  imperfect traces, while reconstructing them, and putting the present activated content together in coherent, self-directed wholes, which can spawn new traces, forever more.

Thought escapes cartesian dualism, and we need new concepts for it. Concepts that are more fluid and integrative than the dichotomies we currently have. Until we know enough to actually understand it well, thought needs us to refine our vision, to follow its versatility with concepts that are more similar in technique to painting the essence of the big picture with broad strokes, more akin to poetry than dualism.