mystery of consciousnesss The young women had survived the car crash, after a fashion. In the five months since parts of her brain had been crushed, she could open her eyes but didn't respond to sights, sounds or jabs. In the jargon of neurology, she was judged to be in a persistent vegetative state. So picture the astonishment of British and Belgian scientists as they scanned her brain using a kind of MRI that detects blood flow to active parts of the brain. Try to comprehend what it is like to be that woman. The report of this unusual case last September was just the latest shock from a bracing new field, the science of consciousness. It shouldn't be surprising that research on consciousness is alternately exhilarating and disturbing. To make scientific headway in a topic as tangled as consciousness, it helps to clear away some red herrings.
Alfred North Whitehead's Process and Reality Alfred North Whitehead’s Process and Reality Alfred North Whitehead’s Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology is based on the Gifford Lectures which he delivered at the University of Edinburgh in 1927-8. Whitehead presents a system of speculative philosophy which is based on a categoreal scheme of investigation, designed to explain how concrete aspects of human experience can provide a foundation for our understanding of reality. Whitehead also investigates how reality can be defined as a process of becoming. The lectures are divided into five parts: "Part I: The Speculative Scheme;" "Part II: Discussions and Applications;" "Part III: The Theory of Prehensions;" "Part IV: The Theory of Extension;" and "Part V: Final Interpretation." Part I describes how abstract concepts may arise from the examination of concrete actual entities. The Category of the Ultimate is a category by which a disjunctive diversity of actual entities becomes a conjunctive unity. Whitehead, Alfred North. home page
Philip K. Dick, Sci-Fi Philosopher, Part 3 The Stone is a forum for contemporary philosophers and other thinkers on issues both timely and timeless. This is the third in a three-part series. Part 3: Adventures in the Dream Factory In the previous post, we looked at Philip K. Philip K. Leif Parsons Dick’s gnosticism also allows us to see in a new light what is the existentially toughest teaching of traditional Christianity: that sin lies within us in the form of original sin. On the gnostical view, once we see the wicked world for what it is, we can step back and rediscover our essential goodness, the divine spark within us, our purity, our authenticity. Aside from “The Matrix” trilogy and the direct movie adaptations of Dick’s fiction, there are strong gnostical themes in the two most recent movies of the Danish film writer and director Lars von Trier. Dick’s gnosticism can enable us to understand the paranoid style of American politics. The morality of gnosticism is also oddly relevant to our current situation.
integral options cafe Genealogy of Morals: Third Essay, Sections 11-14 Summary In the ascetic priest we find the most serious representative of the ascetic ideal. He sees life as "a wrong road on which one must finally walk back to the point where it begins, or as a mistake that is put right by deeds." Ascetic ideals spring up spontaneously everywhere on earth, in every time and culture. Such a contradictory will, when turned to philosophy, is likely to turn itself against the real, claiming that it is unreal. Rather than argue against this point of view, Nietzsche expresses some gratefulness toward it. Nietzsche next tackles the contradiction found in saying that the ascetic ideal represents "life against life." Nietzsche says this "sickness" arises from nausea at and a pity for humanity. Commentary Nietzsche is fond of hyperbole and metaphor, and it might not be immediately apparent what he means when he accuses the majority of his contemporary Europeans of being "sick." "Sickness" is an apt name because it is contagious.
Interview: Vernor Vinge by The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy Vernor Vinge is the author of many novels, including Hugo Award-winners A Fire Upon the Deep, A Deepness in the Sky, and Rainbows End, as well as acclaimed novels The Peace War and Marooned in Realtime. His latest novel is The Children of the Sky. This interview first appeared in Wired.com’s The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast, which is hosted by John Joseph Adams and David Barr Kirtley. Visit geeksguideshow.com to listen to the entire interview and the rest of the show, in which the hosts discuss various geeky topics. You’re famous for coining the phrase “The Technological Singularity.” I used that term first, I think, at an artificial intelligence conference in 1982. That is a consequence of this particular type of progress—that is, in making creatures that are smarter than humans. What are some of the scenarios for how the Singularity might unfold? I think there are all sorts of different paths to the Singularity, at least five pretty different paths.
what things are conscious From Robert Lawrence Kuhn, host and creator of Closer To Truth: I am haunted by consciousness: the great mystery of inner awareness, seemingly so commonplace, truly so astounding. When science finally finishes the puzzle of the universe, the riddle of consciousness, many believe, will remain largely unsolved. I search for consciousness. Where to find it? 1) Only human beings are truly conscious—a position often driven by religious belief in an exclusively human soul. 2) Only animals with large brains are conscious—primates, elephants, dolphins. 3) All animals are conscious—with differing degrees of consciousness. 4) All life of any kind is conscious in some way—plant or animal, single cell or multicell. 5) Computational systems of sufficient complexity can become conscious—this means nonbiological systems. 6) All that exists—nonliving as well as living—has a kind of consciousness; every particle has something of proto-consciousness. There are two key questions: P.S.
The 50 Most Brilliant Atheists of All Time Atheism is generating quite a lot of attention these days. Prominent atheists are getting the word out about their views in increasing numbers and generating lots of public debate on the proper place of religion in governments and societies in the modern world. And now more than ever, atheists have been able to network together and join forces because of the Internet. Today about 2.3 percent of the world's population identifies themselves as atheist, and nearly 12 percent more (a number that is quickly growing) describe themselves as nontheist - non-believers in any deity. The ranks of scientists boast probably the largest concentration of atheists, and many of those have been recognized as among the most brilliant of human beings for their work. Here's a look at 50 of the most prominent atheists of all time who also happen to be recognized as some of the most brilliant members of our species. 1. 2. 3. 4. [no image available] Theodorus the Atheist from Cyrene lived around 300 b.c.e. 5.
Obama campaign ads: How the Analyst Institute is helping him hone his message Two weeks ago, top Obama campaign advisers Jim Messina and David Axelrod announced a $25 million national television buy, a figure rightfully acknowledged with a sense of wonder, given that there were still six months to go before Election Day. But anyone waiting for coast-to-coast shock-and awe must be disappointed. The ads have rolled out at a desultory trickle: a nine-state buy for a 60-second overview of Obama’s first-term successes; a Spanish-language health-care ad running in Florida and another in English about higher-education costs appearing there and in Nevada; and a long ad about Bain Capital that reportedly cost less than $100,000 to place in markets across five states. Sasha Issenberg is the author of The Victory Lab about the new science of political campaigns. But scattered, unsustained messaging has become the unlikely hallmark of the well-funded Chicago campaign. Illustration by Robert Donnelly. This campaign is a different story.
level 3 of consciousness Meme Central Books Level 3 Resources Richard Brodie Virus of the Mind What’s New? Site Map Level 3 of Consciousness You are reading about something that most people don’t even know exists. If you told them, they wouldn’t just not believe you—they would have no clue what you were talking about. 1. Sometimes like attracts like and sometimes opposite attracts opposite. When like attracts like, it can end there, like an oxygen molecule made up of two oxygen atoms, or it can continue to attract like, like a Carbon atom. 2. Sometimes a self-replicating thing makes a copy of itself with a mistake in it. The only way for new things to get created is by a complex series of mistakes that turn out to be better after all. 3. 4. 5. 6. Self-replication is the most powerful force in the universe. Sometimes a self-replicating memeplex makes a mistake in copying itself. The only way for a new idea to gain acceptance is by a series of copying mistakes that turn out to be better after all. 7. 8. 9.
Reason and Intuition The links in the table on the left take you to sub-headings on this page. The correspondence theory is also called realism and is the theory used by science : it assumes that an object is what it appears to be, that is, an object is made of matter. In this theory, objects are independent of the observer who is looking at them, so they are not mental creations. Since objects are self-evident they in fact prove their own existence. Systematic thinking, the kind of thinking that ranges over many disciplines and tries to find associations between them, is not a virtue of this theory. The correspondence theory can contain contradictions : for example, the idea of a table either being solid or being primarily empty space. The coherence theory assumes that objects are not self-evident – their existence has to be explained. The major difference between the two theories is really one of generalisation. Insight and Intuition I give two definitions. Intellectual Functioning Feeling of Truth Two Stages
Literary Revolution in the Supermarket Aisle: Genre Fiction Is Disruptive Technology (Lev Grossman writes about books here on Wednesdays. Subscribe to his RSS feed.) This post is by way of a reply to Arthur Krystal’s “Easy Writers,” a thoroughly thought-provoking piece about the relationship between genre fiction and literary fiction that ran in the New Yorker this week. I was happy to see the New Yorker weighing in on this, because I think it’s an important part of what’s going on in fiction right now. I think about it a lot. So naturally if anybody says anything about it anywhere, the world urgently requires my response. [I want to be clear, by the way, that this is a response in the sense of a (probably one-sided) critical conversation. What Krystal does in “Easy Writers” is introduce the idea that the distinction between genre fiction and literary fiction has, of late, gotten less clear. (MORE: The Year in Novels So Far) Personally, I think the situation is more complicated than Krystal makes it out to be. Personally I don’t think it’s anywhere near that simple.