Towards a Science of Consciousness Conference 2004: interest, questions?

In summary: OR WHAT WE CAN KNOW ABOUT REALITY FROM PSYCHIC EXPERIENCE * Roger Penrose, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=664 * Mette Nielsen, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=715 * Pim Van Lommel, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=774 * Giulio Ton
  • #1
hypnagogue
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As some of you may know already, I am going to attend the Towards a Science of Consciousness 2004 conference this year from April 7-11 in Tuscon, Arizona. (More information http://consciousness.arizona.edu/conference/tucson2004/index.php [Broken].)

I was already planning on posting a documentation of my visit there once I got back, but a question asked to me by Canute gave me another idea. In another thread Canute asked me to ask something of Roger Penrose if he were giving a plenary session this year. Well, Roger Penrose isn't going to be at this year's conference (or at least, he won't be presenting anything), but the general idea behind Canute's question struck me as a good one. Why not let the members at PF who are interested in contemporary issues in consciousness attend the conference vicariously through me?

What I am proposing is that members curious about certain issues on consciousness pass on their questions to me, and I will in turn do my best to keep track of answers provided at the conference. (Of course I was already planning on soaking up as much information as possible, but in this case I could try to pay special attention to specific questions / issues.) This could include asking questions about general progress / modern theories of some specific issue, or questions posed to particular individuals in the field. Of course the former would be easier to do than the latter, but in any case I would do my best.

For now I am trying to gauge interest in this idea more than anything else. Keep in mind that I will be posting about my trip either way; this proposal only differs insofar as I will pay special attention to any questions raised as I am attending the conference. If sufficient interest is shown I will post a detailed itinerary of the lectures and workshops I will be attending, which in turn should help members form specific questions to pass on to me. So, what do you think?
 
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  • #2
metacognition in animals

hypnagogue, that was honorable of you, to think of us. I see there is a conference on Sunday the 11th of April, on "Is there metacognition in animals"
I would like to know where the lastest study of dolphins has taken us. Can dolphins recognize there image in a mirror? Will there be a pdf file on all the workshop sessions later?
 
  • #3
Yes. Thanks, it is very generous of you to offer.

First, I would like to know of any rebuttle, confirmation, supporting information or refutation of this:

http://www.datadiwan.de/SciMedNet/library/articlesN75+/N76Parnia_nde.htm [Broken]

Near Death Experiences in Cardiac Arrest and the Mystery of Consciousness

Sam Parnia, Southampton, England

... Due to the lack of brain function in these circumstances, therefore, one would not expect there to be any lucid, well-structured thought processes, with reasoning and memory formation, which are characteristic of NDEs...
 
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  • #4
My thanks too for your kind offer.

If you have been previous "Tucson(s)", perhaps you could reflect on how you see various strands developing - better sense of a program, some stuck, others racing ahead breathlessly, ... It may be better to do this some time after you've returned, so as to not be carried away by the on-site buzz :wink:
 
  • #5
Hypagogue that is very kind of you and I thank you. I don't have any special request for the time being, but take more pictures (and make sure that they are posted on line)! Hee hee.
 
  • #6
Itinerary

Thanks everyone for your kind words. It's only my pleasure to share this wealth of information and ideas with everyone here to the fullest extent possible.

Here's a detailed list of the specific workshops and lectures I plan to attend, which may help you in picking out certain issues you're especially interested in.

The plenary sessions are the 'featured' lectures, whereas one must choose among a number of simultaneously occurring alternatives for the workshops and concurrent sessions. This is a bit unfortunate as there is a lot of interesting stuff going on-- for instance one has to pick a maximum of 3 out of 21 available concurrent sessions! For this reason the concurrent sessions listed are not written in stone-- I may choose to attend different ones at the last moment. (For anyone interested, a full list of concurrent sessions with abstracts is available https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web.aspx?report=C [Broken].)

http://consciousness.arizona.edu/conference/tucson2004/index.php?page=workshops [Broken]
Observing the Mind, Part 1: Basic Training in Skillful Means
(Charles T. Tart)

http://consciousness.arizona.edu/conference/tucson2004/index.php?page=workshops [Broken]
Observing the Mind, Part 2: Mindfulness in Everyday Life
(Charles T. Tart)

http://consciousness.arizona.edu/conference/tucson2004/index.php?page=workshops [Broken]
What does science know about extra-ordinary states of consciousness?
(Katharine McGovern, Bernard Baars, Stanley Krippner, and Frank Echelhofer)

Plenary session 1
WHAT ARE THE NEURAL CORRELATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS?

* Stephen Macknik, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=592 [Broken]
* Christof Koch, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=635 [Broken]
* David Leopold, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=659 [Broken]

Plenary session 2
WHAT IS THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF CONSCIOUSNESS?

* Jack Pettigrew, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=1014 [Broken]
* Andrew Matus, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=610 [Broken]

Plenary session 3
SYNESTHESIA AND NEURAL PLASTICITY: IMPLICATIONS FOR A THEORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS

* Ned Block, Functionalism, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=684 [Broken]
* Alva Noe, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=656 [Broken]

Plenary session 4
HOW DO HALLUCINOGENS AFFECT CONSCIOUSNESS?

* Alexander Shulgin, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=663 [Broken]
* Franz X. Vollenweider, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=713 [Broken]
* Thomas Ray, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=260 [Broken]
4:30pm-6:35pm

Plenary session 5
IS CONSCIOUS WILL AN ILLUSION?

* Daniel Wegner, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=672 [Broken]
* Terry Horgan, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=654 [Broken]
* Roy Baumeister, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=550 [Broken]

Plenary session 6
KEY NOTE ADDRESS

* Zoltan Torey, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=724 [Broken]

Plenary session 7
IS THERE ATTENTION OUTSIDE AWARENESS?

* Victor Lamme, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=677 [Broken]
* Ronald Rensink, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=658 [Broken]
* Guven Guzeldere, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=72 [Broken]

Plenary session 8
KEY NOTE ADDRESS

* Steven Pinker, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=668 [Broken]

Plenary session 9
ETHICS AND THE BRAIN

* Martha Farah, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=657 [Broken]
* Joshua Greene, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=661 [Broken]
* Deborah Denno, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=471 [Broken]

Plenary session 10
IS THERE META COGNITION IN ANIMALS?

* Wendy Shields, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=678 [Broken]
* Janet Metcalfe, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=662 [Broken]
* Peter Carruthers, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=693 [Broken]

Plenary session 11
KEY NOTE ADDRESS

* Daniel Dennett, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=679 [Broken]

Plenary session 12
TENTH ANNIVERSARY SESSION: LOOKING BACK, LOOKING FORWARD

Concurrent session 7
FIRST-PERSON APPROACHES

* Jack Petranker, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=292 [Broken]
* Anthony Freeman, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=331 [Broken]
* Russell Hurlburt, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=397 [Broken]
* Christopher Heavey, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=390 [Broken]
* John Barresi, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=556 [Broken]

Concurrent session 9
SELF-KNOWLEDGE AND INTROSPECTION

* William Robinson, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=278 [Broken]
* Eric Schwitzgebel, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=367 [Broken]
* John Bengson, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=451 [Broken]
* Jerry Yang, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=408 [Broken]
* Jessica Brown, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=537 [Broken]

Concurrent session 19
HALLUCINOGENS AND CONSCIOUSNESS

* Marcelo Mercante, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=248 [Broken]
* Olivia Carter, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=381 [Broken]
* Karl, L.R. Jansen, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=465 [Broken]
* Michael Winkelman, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=501 [Broken]
* Todd Bresnick, https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web_detail.aspx?abs=274 [Broken]
 
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  • #7
Rader said:
hypnagogue, that was honorable of you, to think of us. I see there is a conference on Sunday the 11th of April, on "Is there metacognition in animals"
I would like to know where the lastest study of dolphins has taken us. Can dolphins recognize there image in a mirror?

OK, I will try special attention to this lecture. For now though, I can tell you off the top of my head for a fact that dolphins can recognize their images in a mirror (or at least their behavior in front of a mirror strongly indicates this).

Will there be a pdf file on all the workshop sessions later?

I inquired about this, and the response was that the availability of written summaries of the workshops depends on the instructors involved. I will try to collect as much written information from the sessions as is available, including information from sessions / workshops I can't attend, if possible.
 
  • #8
Ivan Seeking said:
Yes. Thanks, it is very generous of you to offer.

First, I would like to know of any rebuttle, confirmation, supporting information or refutation of this:

http://www.datadiwan.de/SciMedNet/library/articlesN75+/N76Parnia_nde.htm [Broken]

I will keep an eye out, although there are no sessions that deal with NDEs explicitly. One passing remark I can make is that EEG readings only record neural activity on the surface of the brain, so a flat EEG reading is still consistent with neural activity occurring below the cortical surface (and perhaps even with sufficiently reduced, but still existent, neural activity on the surface).

The presentation I have targeted for this issue is one titled 'What Can Ketamine Teach Us About Ordinary and Altered States of Consciousness?' in the concurrent session 'Hallucinogens and Consciousness.' Here is the abstract, which promises the lecture to be enlightening on the physiological basis of NDEs:

Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic with powerful hallucinogenic and psychedelic properties, including out-of-body experiences, transcendence of time, an extension of awareness beyond consensus reality into other universes, and other effects. Ketamine can produce every feature of a near-death experience (NDE) (Jansen 2001), including the conviction that one has died, awareness leaving the body, ringing/buzzing/ whistling sounds followed by travel through a tunnel at high speed, emerging into light, communion with God, and a life review.
Because we know how ketamine acts in the brain, this provides us with an understanding of how NDE’s arise. Ketamine blocks ion channels attached to NMDA receptors, and causes a blockage so that salts cannot enter the cell. The neurotransmitter glutamate crosses the gap between cells and binds to NMDA receptors, turning the chemical key which should allow ions to enter the cell. However, while the tunnel is blocked by ketamine, this is not possible.

NDE’s also involve blockade of NMDA receptors. A sudden fall in O2 or blood sugar, a rise in CO2 (e.g. during a heart attack), and other factors cause a flood release of glutamate. This over-excites cells which die. This is called ‘excito-toxicity’. The glutamate flood also activates apoptotic genes which trigger the cell to commit suicide. Ketamine can prevent this brain damage via the same mechanism which is important to its psychedelic effects: blockade of channels so that ‘the ion sea’ cannot rush into the cells. This led to the prediction that the brain would have its own, natural protective mechanisms against the glutamate flood (Jansen 2001). There would be a huge evolutionary advantage in the development of a protective mechanism involving a counter-flood of natural NMDA receptor-complex blockers, producing ketamine-like NDE effects. While a person is having an NDE at the psychological level, the brain is thus protecting itself from excito-toxic damage. Natural blockers include NAAG (N-acetyl-aspartyl-glutamate), magnesium and kynurenic acid, all of which protect cells from excito-toxic damage.
People deprived of oxygen for long periods, e.g. after a heart attack, and who report NDE’s, sometimes survive with unimpaired brains. This lack of damage may result from an inherited mechanism for blocking over-excitation. Thus people who can have an NDE may be less likely to suffer brain damage. These may be the same group who report psychedelic experiences with ketamine. Dreams, ketamine ‘journeys’ and NDE’s are all states in which there is a dramatically reduced sensory input from the outside world. Those who do not recall dreams also do not recall ketamine ‘journeys’. The % who recall dreams is about the same as the % reporting ‘emergence phenomena’ after ketamine: about 40%, which is the % of the population who have had some kind of NDE. Genetic differences may be responsible, expressing themselves as different forms of NMDA receptors.

Ref: Jansen KLR (2001a) Ketamine: Dreams and Realities. Sarasota, Florida: Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (ISBN 0-9660019-3-1) (Available from www.maps.org).
 
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  • #9
Nereid said:
My thanks too for your kind offer.

If you have been previous "Tucson(s)", perhaps you could reflect on how you see various strands developing - better sense of a program, some stuck, others racing ahead breathlessly, ... It may be better to do this some time after you've returned, so as to not be carried away by the on-site buzz :wink:

I haven't been to previous Tuscon conferences, but I am sure within this conference itself varying strands of theoretical thought (possibly competing, possibly converging) will emerge.

As one may notice from the workshops and concurrent sessions I have chosen, I am particularly interested in the subjective, first person side of things, which is the main source of conceptual difficulties surrounding consciousness (issues such as priveleged subjective access to phenomenal states and so on). I hope to get a clearer picture of the current scientific and philosophical positions on this issue, and I will be particularly interested to see if any convergent themes from different conceptual foundations regarding this issue emerge from the discussion.

Also, the closing plenary session 'Tenth Anniversary Session: Looking Back, Looking Forward' may be particularly enlightening with respect to your inquiry.
 
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  • #10
Polly said:
Hypagogue that is very kind of you and I thank you. I don't have any special request for the time being, but take more pictures (and make sure that they are posted on line)! Hee hee.

Heheh, well if I can get a photo op with David Chalmers I'll surely jump at it. :biggrin:
 
  • #11
I was reading through and I just noticed that Chalmers isn't going to give any speeches or tutorials in the conference?
 
  • #12
Jeebus said:
I was reading through and I just noticed that Chalmers isn't going to give any speeches or tutorials in the conference?

Not that I know of, although he may speak in the final plenary session. I don't know why-- maybe he is too busy or maybe he has nothing fundamentally new to say at this point. However he is the director of Arizona University's Center for Consciousness Studies, which is supporting / hosting the conference, so if nothing else I imagine he played a major role in organizing the conference. And of course, I fully expect him to be attending the conference whether he speaks publically or not.
 
  • #13
Hypnagogue, will there be any discussion of OBE's?
 
  • #14
loseyourname said:
Hypnagogue, will there be any discussion of OBE's?

There will be no discussion whose primary focus is OBEs, but the purported physiological basis of such experiences will be explored by way of analogy to the physiological effects of the drug ketamine. See my reply to Ivan Seeking (post #8 in this thread).
 
  • #15
That isn't really what I meant, but thanks. There are reported instances of observed OBE's; that is, a person projected his/her consciousness toward a target of some sort that was able to perceive this disassociated "ghost" or whatever you want to call it. Some people with reported OBE's have even been able to describe aspects of a location they projected themselves into that were not known to any other person, seemingly ruling out clairvoyance. I was wondering if there would be any discussion of that, but I guess not.
 
  • #16
Thanks for clarifying. You would probably be most interested in the 'Nonlocal and Paranormal Effects' concurrent session (you can read the abstracts https://bandura.sbs.arizona.edu/login/consciousness/report_web.aspx?report=C [Broken]). Unfortunately I most probably will be attending a different concurrent session, but I will collect any written material on this if possible.
 
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  • #17
Could you take a sounding on the unfalsifiablity of Idealism and what this implies for our ability to explain consciousness in terms of brain.
 

1. What is the purpose of the Towards a Science of Consciousness Conference 2004?

The conference aims to bring together scientists, philosophers, and experts in various fields to discuss and share research and theories on the nature of consciousness.

2. What topics will be covered at the conference?

The conference will cover a wide range of topics related to consciousness, including but not limited to: neural correlates of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, consciousness in animals and machines, and philosophical implications of consciousness.

3. Who are the speakers at the conference?

The conference will feature speakers from various disciplines and backgrounds, including neuroscientists, psychologists, philosophers, and spiritual leaders. Some notable speakers include Daniel Dennett, Christof Koch, and Deepak Chopra.

4. How can I attend the conference?

The conference is open to the public, but registration is required. You can register online through the conference website or on-site at the registration desk. There is a registration fee, but discounts are available for students and early bird registration.

5. Will there be opportunities for networking and collaboration at the conference?

Yes, the conference will include various networking events, such as poster sessions, roundtable discussions, and social events, to facilitate collaboration and exchange of ideas among attendees.

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