On 12/22/2011 7:00 PM, Craig Weinberg wrote:
On Dec 22, 7:13 pm, Jason Resch<jasonre...@gmail.com> wrote:
This is because of the modularity of our brains:
Different sections of the brain perform specific functions. Some neurons
may serve only as communication links between different regions in the
brain, while others may be involved in processing. I think that the
malfunction and correction of a "communication neuron" might not alter
Alice's experience, in the same way we could correct a faulty signal in her
optic nerve and not expect her experience to be affected. I am less sure,
however, that a neuron involved in processing could have its function
replaced by a randomly received particle, as this changes the definition of
the machine.
Think of a register containing a bit '1'. If the bit is '1' because two
inputs were received and the logical AND operation is applied, this is an
entirely different computation from two bits being ANDed, the result placed
in that register, then (regardless of the result) the bit '1' is set in
that register. This erases any effect of the two input bits, and redefines
the computation altogether. This 'set 1' instruction is much like the
received particles from the super nova causing neurons to fire. It is a
very shallow computation, and in my opinion, not likely to lead to any
consciousness.
This study suggests that the mind should not be modeled in that way:
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June05/new.mind.model.ssl.html
"For decades, the cognitive and neural sciences have treated mental
processes as though they involved passing discrete packets of
information in a strictly feed-forward fashion from one cognitive
module to the next or in a string of individuated binary symbols --
like a digital computer," said Spivey. "More recently, however, a
growing number of studies, such as ours, support dynamical-systems
approaches to the mind. In this model, perception and cognition are
mathematically described as a continuous trajectory through a high-
dimensional mental space; the neural activation patterns flow back and
forth to produce nonlinear, self-organized, emergent properties --
like a biological organism."
All of which is emulable by a digital computer.
Their findings support my view that consciousness is biological
awareness, not modular computation.
Except computation is well defined. We know how make something that does computation.
Awareness is just using another word for consciousness.
Brent
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Everything List" group.
To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
