The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach

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The discussion revolves around Christof Koch's book "The Quest for Consciousness," which explores the biological basis of consciousness and introduces the concept of neuronal correlates of consciousness (NCC). Participants debate the validity of NCC, with some philosophers arguing that it lacks coherence and does not address the "hard problem" of consciousness—how subjective experiences arise from physical processes. The conversation contrasts scientific and philosophical approaches, with some asserting that philosophy often lacks empirical evidence, while others argue that science has not yet adequately explained consciousness. Key points include the relationship between brain activity and conscious experience, the limitations of current scientific understanding, and the potential existence of non-physical aspects of consciousness. The discussion highlights differing views on whether consciousness can be fully explained through physical processes or if there is something more, with participants expressing skepticism about both mechanistic explanations and supernatural interpretations. The complexity of defining consciousness and the ongoing debates about its nature are central themes, emphasizing the interdisciplinary challenges in understanding this profound topic.
  • #61
A conscious moment

I've been reading John Searle's "Consciousness"

He proposes the "Unified Field Theory" suggesting that consciousness is spread across a portion of the brain called the thalamocortical system. Searle states, "we should look for consciousness as a feature of the brain emerging from the activities of large masses of neurons, and which cannot be explained by the activities of individual neurons".

In my humble opinion, that statement hints of "Emergence". Allow me to offer a slightly changed version of an analogy I stated earlier:

Imagine all the ways thousands of butterflies trapped in a 3-D matrix could flap their wings in synchronicity. Not just all at once but in a symphony of "flowing" patterns (a large 3-D matrix). Imagine in it's past, a breeze passed through the matrix. The pattern of beating wings shifted in response to the force of the breeze propagating through the matrix. Now the wings, in the absence of a breeze, shift back to that pattern as the matrix experiences a conscious moment.
 
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  • #62
loseyourname said:
To elaborate on what salty said, imagine that we can reconstruct your own brain, neuron by neuron, to the point where the architecture and functionality of the second brain was exactly the same as yours. Would it not believe it was you? It would have your memories filed away and your behavioral tendencies programmed into it (including any tendency to love in a particular way). It would also hold all of the same beliefs that you do. Now imagine we did this same thing, but instead of using organic neurons, we used silicon chips that performed exactly the same computations and behaved exactly like human neurons. Wouldn't the outcome be the same? We'd have created a robot Mentat, complete with your past and your social constructs. (You'll have to put aside the practical impossibility of ever doing this, of course.)

Quite correct (and admirably succinct).
 

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