This song looks at all of the ways of trying to understand the universe (religion, mysticism, science, philosophy, fortunetelling, mind-expanding drugs) skeptically. In the first verse, it goes so far as to say that all of these belief systems are "boneheaded" and have caused a lot of problems (crucified history). The song says that we're nothing more than material from exploded stars (=carbon) that just happened to turn out as humans, and sure, it's difficult to wrap your head around this prospect. "Is that all we are?" we ask, but nobody from among this huge list of systems of thought can give a better explanation so in the end we must conclude "yeah, that's all we are."
"Ghost in the machine": a brief explanation...
Descartes (the philosopher who is famous for "I think, therefore I am") was a dualist: he believed that the body and the mind are separate entities. He believed that the body is a physical entity, and the mind transcends the physical (like a spirit or consciousness) and inhabits the body and controls its actions.
Gilbert Ryle wrote a book in 1949 rejecting Descartes' dualist theory of the mind. He derogatorily called it "the myth of the ghost in the machine," where the ghost represents the mind inhabiting the physical body/machine. So when the song says "there's no ghost in this machine," it's saying the narrator doesn't have a soul or mind that's separate from his body. He probably believes that his "mind" is just his brain, which is a physical entity and is part of his body.
This song looks at all of the ways of trying to understand the universe (religion, mysticism, science, philosophy, fortunetelling, mind-expanding drugs) skeptically. In the first verse, it goes so far as to say that all of these belief systems are "boneheaded" and have caused a lot of problems (crucified history). The song says that we're nothing more than material from exploded stars (=carbon) that just happened to turn out as humans, and sure, it's difficult to wrap your head around this prospect. "Is that all we are?" we ask, but nobody from among this huge list of systems of thought can give a better explanation so in the end we must conclude "yeah, that's all we are."
"Ghost in the machine": a brief explanation...
Descartes (the philosopher who is famous for "I think, therefore I am") was a dualist: he believed that the body and the mind are separate entities. He believed that the body is a physical entity, and the mind transcends the physical (like a spirit or consciousness) and inhabits the body and controls its actions.
Gilbert Ryle wrote a book in 1949 rejecting Descartes' dualist theory of the mind. He derogatorily called it "the myth of the ghost in the machine," where the ghost represents the mind inhabiting the physical body/machine. So when the song says "there's no ghost in this machine," it's saying the narrator doesn't have a soul or mind that's separate from his body. He probably believes that his "mind" is just his brain, which is a physical entity and is part of his body.
I hope this is a helpful explanation! See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_Ryle#The_Concept_of_Mind