Tag: Consciousness | Page 10

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post

News
Date
April 1, 2021

Categorized
Mathematics, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Conscious Mind (book), Consciousness, David Chalmers, Featured, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Gregory Chaitin, hard problem of consciousness, Materialism, Panpsychism, Panpsychism (vs. materialism), Robert J. Marks}

Can Mathematics Help Us Understand Consciousness?

_{Gregory Chaitin asks, what if the universe is information, not matter?} _{News
April 1, 2021

12

Mathematics, Philosophy of Mind}

In last week’s podcast, “The Chaitin Interview IV: Knowability and Unknowability,” Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks interviewed mathematician Gregory Chaitin, best known for Chaitin’s Unknowable Number, on, among other things, consciousness. What can mathematics contribute to the discussion. Also, what does Chaitin think about panpsychism (everything is conscious”)? The discussion began with reference to David Chalmers’s 1996 book, The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory, in which Chalmers coined the term “Hard Problem of Consciousness.” The term acknowledged what everyone knew, that human consciousness is a very difficult problem to understand, especially from a materialist perspective.Are there other approaches? Chaitin offers a look at the challenge panpsychism presents to materialism: https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/Mind-Matters-127-Gregory-Chaitin.mp3 This portion begins at 28:25 Read More ›

Omega, the letter of a Greek alphabet. Greek numerals, mathematical eight hundred number concept. Abstract, digital, wireframe, low poly mesh, Raster blue neon 3d illustration. Triangle, line dot

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podcast

Gregory Chaitin and Robert J. Marks
Date
March 25, 2021

Tagged
Algorithmic Information Theory, Chaitin's Constant, Consciousness, Gregory Chaitin, Panpsychism}

The Chaitin Interview IV: Knowability and Unknowability

_{Gregory Chaitin and Robert J. Marks
March 25, 2021

2}

What does it mean for something to be unknowable? Is creativity non-computable? Do all things have a level of consciousness? Jump into today’s podcast, where Robert J. Marks continues his discussion with Gregory Chaitin about mathematical theory and philosophy. Show Notes Additional Resources (Portions of this transcript have been altered to clarify the content).

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post

News
Date
March 19, 2021

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Connectome, Consciousness, Death, hard problem of consciousness, Near-death experiences, Robert McIntyre, Sebastian Seung}

Does Freezing the Brain’s “Connectome” Offer Hope of Immortality?

_{Some cryogenics researchers are looking at methods of freezing the brain’s memory apparatus in the hope of reviving it one day and saving it as an artificial intelligence} _{News
March 19, 2021

7

Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

The question cryogenics raises is, can we freeze and then recover consciousness itself as opposed to simply saving imprints of a person’s memories as an AI?

A New Theory Links Consciousness to Bioelectricity

_{Consciousness as a function of bioelectric fields? That’s a remarkable idea because it includes the notion that our individual cells are conscious} _{News
March 15, 2021

5

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Bioelectricity is the electricity produced by living organisms as they go about the business of moving, breathing, digesting, etc. Bioelectric currents differ from electric currents that power machines because they consist of ions (molecules that carry an electric charge) rather than electrons. (Encyclopedia.com). But it is still electricity. So what’s the link with consciousness? Evolutionary biologist and lawyer Tam Hunt argues, Nature seems to have figured out that electric fields, similar to the role they play in human-created machines, can power a wide array of processes essential to life. Perhaps even consciousness itself. A veritable army of neuroscientists and electrophysiologists around the world are developing steadily deeper insights into the degree that electric and magnetic fields—“brainwaves” or “neural oscillations”—seem to Read More ›

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post

News
Date
March 9, 2021

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Consciousness, hard problem of consciousness, Lisa Feldman Barrett, Paul D. MacLean, Triune brain concept}

No, You Do Not Have a Lizard Brain Inside Your Human Brain

_{The “lizard brain” is part of what science used to know about the brain that ain’t so} _{News
March 9, 2021

5

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Lisa Feldman Barrett (pictured), Northeastern University psychology prof and author of Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain (2020), is candid about the way new research has cast doubt on old saws in science: “As a neuroscientist, I see scientific myths about the brain repeated regularly in the media and corners of academic research.” The myth she targets in a recent article at Nautilus is the “triune brain,” the idea that our brain developed and continues to function in three successive layers. First developed by neuroscientist Paul D. MacLean (1913–2007) in the 1960s and set out in more detail in his 1990 book The Triune Brain in Evolution, the triune brain theory posited three successive layers of brain: ● Read More ›

Wireframed Robot hand making contact with human hand on dark 3D rendering

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podcast

John Lennox and Robert J. Marks
Date
February 25, 2021

Tagged
1984, Artificial Intelligence, Consciousness, Dan Brown, Human rights, immortality, Panpsychism, Prometheus, Revelation, Robot rights, Superintelligence, surveillance capitalism, transhumanism}

Bingecast: John Lennox on Artificial Intelligence and Humanity

_{John Lennox and Robert J. Marks
February 25, 2021

2}

In this bingecast episode, Robert J. Marks talks with Dr. John C. Lennox, professor of mathematics at the University of Oxford, about all things artificial intelligence. Should robots have rights? What are A.I.’s advantages and threats to humanity? And does theology have anything to say about all of this? Listen in as they discuss Dr. Lennox’s book 2084, and wrestle Read More ›

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post

News
Date
February 21, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Science

Tagged
Casey Luskin, Consciousness, Elon Musk, Martin Rees, Matrix (film), Michael Egnor, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Nick Bostrom, Sabine Hossenfelder, Simulation hypothesis}

Theoretical Physicist Argues, the Sim Universe Is Pseudoscience

_{It’s a lot of fun in science fiction and some scitech celebs buy in. But Sabine Hossenfelder and others explain why it’s fiction} _{News
February 21, 2021

6

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Science}

Theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder does not like the notion that we are living in a giant computer sim. Elon Musk likes it (“Elon Musk says there’s a ‘one in billions’ chance reality is not a simulation”) and so does Neil deGrasse Tyson (“Neil deGrasse Tyson says it’s ‘very likely’ the universe is a simulation”). Philosopher of science Nick Bostrom advanced that view in a seminal 2003 paper in Philosophical Quarterly. Former Astronomer Royal Martin Rees is sympathetic to it. Some call it the Planetarium hypothesis, when it is cited as a reason we do not see intelligent extraterrestrials. One source offers “15 irrefutable reasons” why, like Neo in The Matrix (1999), we might be living in a universe that is Read More ›

The New Caledonian crow bird on the tree. Raven in tropical jungle

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post

Denyse O'Leary
Date
February 17, 2021

Categorized
Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Animal Intelligence, Animal Minds, Consciousness, Dog intelligence, Exothermy and intelligence, Octopus intelligence, Reptile intelligence}

We Knew Crows Were Smart But They Turn Out To Be Even Smarter

_{We are only beginning to scratch the surface of the mysteries of animal intelligence} _{Denyse O'Leary
February 17, 2021

5

Natural Intelligence}

Recently, some researchers have claimed that crows — already known to be smart — are even conscious: Nieder’s experiment showed that the birds were actively evaluating how to solve a particular problem they were confronted with. In effect, they were thinking it over. This ability to consciously assess a problem is associated with the cerebral cortex in the brains of humans. But birds have no cerebral cortex. Nieder found that in crows, thinking occurs in the pallium—the layers of gray and white matter covering the upper surface of the cerebrum in vertebrates. Other studies support the notion that the bird brain can, in principle, support the development of higher intelligence. This idea had been dismissed in the past due to Read More ›

Bottom view of three professional doctors leaning over the patient and wearing medical masks while holding the anesthetic inhaler

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post

Michael Egnor
Date
February 2, 2021

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Anesthesia, Consciousness, Featured, Memory, Soul (concept)}

What Is Your Soul Doing When You’re Under Anesthesia?

_{It’s an intriguing and important question and you may be surprised by some of the answers} _{Michael Egnor
February 2, 2021

7

Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind}

First, no one should worry about unpleasant awareness during anesthesia. I’ve performed more than 7000 brain operations and I’ve never had a patient experience unpleasant awareness related to anesthesia. It does happen, but it’s rare, and I’ve never seen it. I’ve had general anesthesia myself four times, and as I tell my anesthesiology colleagues, I’m a big fan of anesthesia. Modern anesthesia is safe, highly effective, and indispensable. Don’t be afraid of it. But I do need to tell you that there are scientific facts about anesthesia and awareness that may surprise you. Second, when I use the word “soul,” rather than “mind” or “consciousness,” to describe mental states, I am not using the word in a spooky or New Read More ›

Hand turning off the bulb lamp.Turning off the light.

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post

Michael Egnor
Date
January 31, 2021

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Coma, Consciousness, Featured, Jerry Fodor, John Locke, Persistent vegetative state (PVS)}

Your Soul Has No “Off Switch”

_{A major modern misunderstanding of the human mind is to assume that it is like a machine with an “on” and an “off” switch} _{Michael Egnor
January 31, 2021

9

Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind}

There is every reason — philosophical and scientific — to infer that man has an immortal soul.

Does the Ability To Think Depend on Consciousness?

_{From a medical perspective, “consciousness” adds nothing to the description of mental states} _{Michael Egnor
January 27, 2021

8

Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind}

The title question might seem like a strange one but it is vitally important if we are to interpret neuroscience correctly and if we are to understand the mind–brain relationship. In my view, the capacity for thought does not depend on consciousness. The term “consciousness” is at best meaningless and at worst an impediment to understanding the mind. “Consciousness” is a very vague term and, ultimately, I don’t think it has any useful meaning at all, apart from other categories such as sensation, perception, imagination, reason etc. Aristotle had no distinct term for it. Nor do I think did any of the ancient or medieval philosophers. Consciousness is a modern term that seems to subsume all of the sensate powers Read More ›

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post

Eric Holloway
Date
January 15, 2021

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Consciousness, Daniel Dennett, Featured, Kolmogorov complexity}

Toward a Serious Scientific Theory of Consciousness

_{Quantum physics arises from the fact that when we do not observe a particle, it can be in two different places at once, such that it interacts with itself} _{Eric Holloway
January 15, 2021

6

Philosophy of Mind}

Consciousness is the ultimate hard problem of philosophy of science. As of today, there is absolutely no scientific solution to the problem. The nature of consciousness seems ineffable: first person experience appears to be a completely different category of existence than objective externaldescription. This dilemma has led philosophers such as Daniel Dennett to use the ultimate solution: deny the problem exists. Unfortunately, that solution never worked for me at school. The objective reality of bad grades is quite hard to deny. Yet, we need not resort to Daniel Dennett’s ultimate solution. There are concrete things we can say about consciousness if we use the “many worlds” interpretation of quantum physics and the computer science concept of Kolmogorov complexity. Quantum physics Read More ›

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post

News
Date
January 13, 2021

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Consciousness, Integrated Information Theory (IIT), Sabine Hossenfelder}

A Theoretical Physicist Grapples With the Math of Consciousness

_{Looking at the various theories, she is not very happy} _{News
January 13, 2021

3

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

She’s not very happy with what she sees: The currently most popular mathematical approach to consciousness is integrated information theory, IIT for short. It was put forward by a neurologist, Giulio Tononi, in two thousand and four. In IIT, each system is assigned a number, that’s big Phi, which is the “integrated information” and supposedly a measure of consciousness. The better a system is at distributing information while it’s processing the information, the larger Phi. A system that’s fragmented and has many parts that calculate in isolation may process lots of information, but this information is not “integrated”, so Phi is small. For example, a digital camera has millions of light receptors. It processes large amounts of information. But the Read More ›

Psychology concept. Sunrise and woman silhouette.

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post

News
Date
January 6, 2021

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Complex systems, Consciousness, Self-organization}

Can Our Minds Extend Beyond Our Bodies?

_{It depends on how we define our “minds” — Can we disentangle our minds from our experiences?} _{News
January 6, 2021

3

Philosophy of Mind}

Well, here’s a fun coffee break challenge offered by Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., the author of Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology) (2016): … our mind is not simply our perception of experiences, but those experiences themselves. Siegel argues that it’s impossible to completely disentangle our subjective view of the world from our interactions. “I realized if someone asked me to define the shoreline but insisted, is it the water or the sand, I would have to say the shore is both sand and sea,” says Siegel. “You can’t limit our understanding of the coastline to insist it’s one or the other. I started thinking, maybe the mind is like the coastline—some Read More ›

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post

News
Date
December 19, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Computers, Consciousness}

A Silicon Valley Psychologist Doesn’t Believe in Consciousness

_{Duncan Riach thinks that, with increasing complexity, computers will appear to be conscious too but it’s a misunderstanding for both humans and computers} _{News
December 19, 2020

3

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

Duncan Riach, who believes that computers can become selves, doesn’t believe in consciousness. As he explains, I’ve lost friends over this because a denial of consciousness undermines a final refuge of the arrogance of selfhood: universal consciousness. But even most normal people are strongly insistent that consciousness is a real thing, a special thing, and that they possess it. The problem I have is that there’s not only no evidence for it, but what people seem to be referring to as consciousness is explainable as an effect no more unusual, no less materialistically explainable, than water flowing downhill… Rather than jumping to the conclusion that this body has a soul and/or that somehow this “I am,” this feeling of something Read More ›

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post

News
Date
December 19, 2020

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
brain, Consciousness, Hidden Spring (book), Mark Solms, mind}

Psychologist: Consciousness Is Not a Thing But a Point of View

_{Mark Solms attempts to explain consciousness in his new book, Hidden Spring} _{News
December 19, 2020

3

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Anyone who thinks about consciousness soon realizes that it is a Hard Problem. It means being a subject of experience, rather than an object to which experiences happen. A dog has consciousness. He yelps when in pain. But a rock does not care about becoming sand. In an interesting article in Psychology Today, neuropsychologist Mark Solms outlines some thoughts from a book he has written on the subject, The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness (Norton, 2021): Physiological processes do not produce consciousness in the sense that the liver produces bile. Consciousness is not a thing but rather a point of view. What we perceive objectively as physiological processes in the brain we perceive subjectively as conscious Read More ›

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post

News
Date
December 15, 2020

Categorized
Information Theory, Science

Tagged
Consciousness, cosmology, hard problem of consciousness, Origin of life, Paul Davies}

But Do “Hidden Webs of Information” Really Solve Life’s Mystery?

_{Cosmologist Paul Davies won an award last year for an attempt that left “more questions than clean-cut answers (Physics World)} _{News
December 15, 2020

4

Information Theory, Science}

Last year, State University of Arizona’s cosmologist Paul Davies won a Best Book award from Physics World for Demon in the Machine: The book’s subtitle is “How hidden webs of information are solving the mystery of life.” But are they? The book deals with established physics concepts (such as the second law of thermodynamics), but also delves into Davies’ thoughts on topics such as the emergence of human consciousness (while making sure the reader is aware of what is speculation). Readers, though, are likely to be left with more questions than clean-cut answers about the laws of nature. “Just in the last 10 years or so, I suppose, I’ve begun to see a confluence of different subjects. Partly, this is Read More ›

Liquid Nitrogen bank containing suspension of stem cells. Cell culture for the biomedical diagnostic

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post

Heather Zeiger
Date
November 1, 2020

Categorized
Ethics, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
brain, Brain organoids, Consciousness, Featured, Materialism, mind, Naturalism, Sentience}

Can We Make Brains in a Dish? Can We Make MINDS in a Dish?

_{Experiments with brain organoids have left many wondering whether we should be concerned about creating brains-in-a-dish} _{Heather Zeiger
November 1, 2020

8

Ethics, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

In a recent report, Nature addressed several studies on disembodied brains grown in the lab. One of those studies, published last year by Alysson Muotri of the University of California, San Diego, showed that brain organoids (organized clusters of brain cells) displayed electrical signals reminiscent of a twenty-five-week-old pre-term baby. the electrical activity continued for several months until the experiment was eventually stopped. Experiments with such brain organoids have left many wondering whether we should be concerned about creating brains-in-a-dish. Organoids, such as those made of kidney or liver cells, have been used to study drug development and disease. They are made either from embryonic stem cells—an ethically problematic source because they involve the destruction of an embryo—or induced pluripotent Read More ›

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post

News
Date
October 30, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Consciousness, Gaming AI (book), George Gilder, Philip Ball, Quantum computers, Quantum Mechanics}

Will Quantum Mechanics Produce the True Thinking Computer?

_{Quantum computers come with real world problems of their own} _{News
October 30, 2020

3

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

There is an odd relationship between the human mind and quantum mechanics, the science of things too small to be governed by ordinary physics.

Everyone Seems To Be Looking For the “Seat of Consciousness”

_{Does consciousness have a seat at the table? Wait a minute. Isn’t consciousness the TABLE?} _{News
October 30, 2020

4

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Prominent neuroscientist Christof Koch, whose theory of consciousness is linked to panpsychism, has a new paper at Nature: Human Behaviour. Ideally, many science notables would like to “naturalize” human consciousness—to make it the same sort of phenomenon as the wind in the trees in a universe where nothing has any intrinsic meaning that sets it apart from anything else or points to a higher order of things. That would, of course, make calculation easier. But is it true? Here’s the abstract: Electrical stimulation of the human cortex, undertaken for brain surgery, triggers percepts and feelings. A new study documents an ordering principle to these effects: the farther removed from sensory input or motor output structures, the less likely it is Read More ›