good book about consciousness
Posted by earthling at 04:35, 30 Jul 2012Just finished reading an interesting book about consciousness, by someone who has been working on this from the neuroscience angle. The author is Christof Koch.
It is very personable from the authors point of view. It also is very informative.
The tentative conclusion is basically that consciousness is the result of the many independent functional centers in the brain sharing information. When we are conscious they share. When we are not conscious, they do not.
Of course the book is much more complex than my summary. And as I started out saying, it is highly personable from the authors point of view. It is not really very technical, but it is heavy reading. Took me a few weeks, but it was worth it.
Here is how you can find the book:
Consciousness: Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist, The MIT Press, (2012), ISBN 978-0-262-01749-7
wikipedia has a page on this guy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christof_Koch
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12 April 2007
1 hour 45 min
Does he address so-called paranormal phenomena? Precognition, OBEs, NDEs, that sort of stuff?
It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!
Red Pill Junkie
_______________
@red_pill_junkie
22 November 2004
5 days 5 hours
He does not claim completeness of any sort. Just that progress is being made in understanding the nature of consciousness. Especially, he is summarizing his work of a few decades, and he is particular about not claiming too much. He just wants to make some progress.
This is a really hard core scientific approach, while at the same time being philosophical.
One tidbit is that we (all of us) do very complicated things, that our consciousness knows about. _Before_ our consciousness knows about them. This sort of thing has been experimentally verified.
The intriguing thing about what Koch writes is that is is supported by old fashioned reductionist research. And that he is not altogether happy with what he found, but he has no choice but to go forward.
It is worth reading, at least for people like me, to understand the process of how serious scientists work and feel. The personal part of his narrative is more interesting than the science results. But - as I have said before in similar discussions - his approach actually does have results. Incomplete yes. But we are not completely in the dark any more.
I find that encouraging.
But, it took me more than 2 months to read the book. So I can't really summarize it in a short time.
----
We are the cat.
18 September 2007
1 hour 34 min
These purely materialist dissections are valuable. They will one day converge with what we naively call the "paranormal," and we will all laugh at how stupid we were to think we had even an inkling of how things work.
28 June 2006
1 hour 48 min
Emlong
But, we have no concept of what our potential is going to be as we evolve!
What do you think?
cnnek
{You Can Teach People How To Think Critically Or What To Think; But, You Can't Do Both! It Is Better To Teach People How To Think Critically!!!}
18 September 2007
1 hour 34 min
If we knew it would probably freak us out.
28 June 2006
1 hour 48 min
Emlong
I'd like to know!
What do you think?
cnnek
{You Can Teach People How To Think Critically Or What To Think; But, You Can't Do Both! It Is Better To Teach People How To Think Critically!!!}
18 September 2007
1 hour 34 min
I personally think the future is always a work in progress and not necessarily fixed though certain aspects of it may be more fixed than others. We write the script for our future, but we can change the script too, so there is enough free will involved that the future is still a surprise.
28 June 2006
1 hour 48 min
Emlong
It would be nice to be able to influence the future in a positive manner; but, what one person might view as positive another person might view as negative. So, I think that we might be slightly better off the way that things are. Who knows?
What do you think?
cnnek
{You Can Teach People How To Think Critically Or What To Think; But, You Can't Do Both! It Is Better To Teach People How To Think Critically!!!}
18 September 2007
1 hour 34 min
Allow me to be tiresome once again on the subject of orgonite. If purely positive energy is the best game changer then tossing orgonite around the place makes you a definite game changer and for the better. Orgonite is so ludicrous sounding and so ludicrously made that people are put off about that. They can't believe something so goofy sounding could actually work, but it does, and after doing a "gifting" run in some little burb here and there I can feel the place lighten. Dare I say I have certainly changed the "future" with my simple deed.
What keeps people back is their fear of looking ridiculous. They would feel ridiculous purchasing something like orgonite never mind actually spreading the stuff around. The first necessary crack in consciousness involves not caring for your reputation and how you might appear in the eyes of others. That is actually the first step before you buy or commit to anything.
28 June 2006
1 hour 48 min
Emlong
Through our actions, inactions, words, and/or silence we creat the future. Your actions created a better future; but, you changed nothing. On the otherhand, I had never heard of orgonite. Orgonite sounds interesting. What is orgonite?
What do you think?
cnnek
{You Can Teach People How To Think Critically Or What To Think; But, You Can't Do Both! It Is Better To Teach People How To Think Critically!!!}
18 September 2007
1 hour 34 min
Google it. I don't want to tire this forum with this subject too much.
http://www.orgonite.info/
This stuff completely changed my life. You need to experience it. Sitting around thinking about it as an idea will get you nowhere.
28 June 2006
1 hour 48 min
Emlong
Dr. Michio Kaku explains this better than I can explain it; because, it relates to Quantum Mechanics and Time Travel. But, it seems that all possible futures come into existence and we continually help to creat possible futures. But, we can't change futures that have already been created.
What do you think?
cnnek
{You Can Teach People How To Think Critically Or What To Think; But, You Can't Do Both! It Is Better To Teach People How To Think Critically!!!}