I'm aware of qualia. I'm not sure this has any application at all on the level of the lifeworld or neural functioning. I tend to agree w/Edelman; even Penrose would have a different take. But I'm not going to keep going on about this - as I wrote you backchannel, we're worlds apart on this and there's not much space for discussion. And lumping all the analytic phils. together doesn't do justice to their viewpoints or changes, as W's PI's problematics of representation. I also pointed out that Edelman addressed this question directly at SLSA - from the viewpoint of deep neurophys. - and said that the mind is _not_ turing-computable, _not_ encodable, etc., and then gave at least for me sufficient reason. Classic AI takes a diff. viewpoint and so does classic anal. phil, but these are outmoded by decades in terms of neurophys. and phys. for that matter.
Interesting that below JS has no refs. to neurophys. at all - apparently you can 'know' how consciousness works w/ out look at the mind. - Alan On Fri, 16 Dec 2005, phanero wrote:
The Field of Qualia Jack Sarfatti August 26, 1996 How are our thoughts -- our consciousness -- translated into action?" I actually have a detailed theory of this based upon an extension of Bohm's 1952 quantum pilot-wave/classical material hidden variable theory. Note, the more modern term for "hidden-variable" is John Bell's term "beable". The inner quantum information density field I(x,t), whose range is in quantum Hilbert space H and whose domain is in classical configuration space C , is, quite literally, the "field of thought patterns" that make up the implicate order. These patterns of I(x,t) exert a quantum force Fq = - Grad Q Q = -(1/2)[ (GradI)^2 + (Grad)^2I] on the brain material beable B moving in C. That's how thought is translated into action. The field of thought-patterns or qualia I(x,t), together with external environmental classical forces Fe create basins of attraction for the flow of the brain system point B in C. Qualia are encoded in these attractors. When B occupies a given attractor basin the corresponding thought-pattern is felt i.e., experienced. This attractor structure in C is the quantum version of the fractal strange attractors of classical chaos theory which leaves out the thought-field force from I(x,t). In the classical limit only Fe creates the attractor structure in C. The pattern of classical Fe forces represent the Darwinian natural selection pressures of the environment. To complete this model of a complex conscious adaptive system, we need a mechanism for self-organization. Without self-organization there is no conscious intent, no purposeful explicate behavior, and no "felt" implicate conscious experience. I have shown how implicate thought becomes explicate action. We now have to show how the brain-beable B in C literally and directly changes its thought-field I(x,t) whose range is quantum Hilbert space H. This is the back-action b mechanism by which the structure of H is modified by the actual path taken by B in C. But, that path of B in C is determined by both the implicate Fq = - Grad Q and the explicate Darwinian Fe. Therefore, Fq,Fe, from I(x,t) to B, together with back-action b from B to I(x,t) is a self-organizing cybernetic feedback-control creative strange loop that creates the conscious experience and allows the I-B system to make freely-willed choices which are the results of classically nonalgorithmic quantum computations. Now I can prove rigorously, that only when such a strange loop of Godel self-reference is operating, is there an experience of one actual world. This is a Bohmian ontological model that derives Wigner's and von-Neumann's epistemological idea that "consciousness collapses the wave function". The strange loop means that the mind (I)-brain (B) complex adaptive system is continually measuring itself. Only then, is there the inner "felt" experience of "qualia". This is the quantum dynamo generating our streams of consciousness. "the wave function is linear or passive in that it requires an outside agent to select events ....." That is exactly what back-action is -- it is the "outside agent", except it is really inside. It is the generator of consciousness. To be more precise. The usual picture of quantum measurement has a measuring apparatus M and the system being measured N. They are not the same system. That leads to the measurement problem which you discuss pretty well in its different aspects. Now Bohm thought he had solved this measurement problem and up until recently I thought he was correct. But now, in dialogue with Henry Stapp, I see a non-fatal, but serious, flaw in Bohm's argument. Bohm is able to correctly show why it is that fringes disappear in the double slit experiment if a measurement of "which slit 1 or 2?" the particle P passes is made even though the particle wave packets and overlap on the screen. Where x is the position on the screen. This is because of the EPR correlation |M,N) = |m1)|n1) + |m2)|n2) Therefore, (x|M,N) = |m1)(x|n1) + |m2)(x|n2) So, |(x|M,N)|2 = |(x|n1)|2 + |(x|n2)|2 because (m1|m2) = 0. That is, the two measuring wavepackets have zero overlap in their classical configuration subspace Cm. The EPR correlation between M and N implies an incoherent superposition of the particle wave packets (x|n1) and (x|n2) even though they do overlap in their classical configuration subspace Cn. Bohm then makes an incorrect next step for the actual path of the hidden variable P in Cn. He says that one can think that P is really in either (x|n1) or (x|n2) . The occupied wave packet is the "active information" and the empty one is "inactive information". Bohm is trying to establish that only one of the wave packets for P is totally determining the classical mechanical, possibly chaotic, attractor structure for the path of P in Cn. That is, Bohm wrongly thinks that, because of the EPR correlation of N to nonoverlapping packets in Cm, that the attractor structure in Cn is in 1-1 correspondence with the P wave packets (x|n1) and (x|n2). But what is true for the wave is not true for the particle. A careful analysis of Bohm's equations of motion for P under the action of the nonlocal quantum force - gradQ show that both (x|n1) and (x|n2) contribute to the quantum force on P in the region of overlap in Cn. Of course, the details of the quantum force pattern on the possible paths of P in the incoherent case is very different from what it is in the coherent case where no measurement of which slit is made. The serious problem however, is that both classically incompatible worlds continue to influence the motion of P. This is not a problem in "collapse" models because one of the packets (x|n1) or (x|n2) miraculously vanishes. But Bohm's theory cannot make this Deux ex Machina. The only consistent way there can be a 1-1 correspondence between the wave packets or "channels" and the attractor structure is if there really is no overlap in Cn. This is generally not the case in orthodox linear passive quantum mechanics. The only way to solve the problem is to consider complex systems that are able to measure themselves. Such a complex system is conscious almost by definition. That is, if N is the same as M the problem is solved because then there is only one classical configuration space C and a good "self measurement" means no overlap in C of the different wave packets that correspond to classically incompatible worlds. The hidden-variable must be in only one of those wave packets. It can never escape that particular packet because the quantum repulsive force is infinite at the edges where the wave packet is zero. But how can this happen? This can only happen if there is a direct back-action b from the path of P in C to the total wavefunction. As explained earlier this results in the self-organizing ability of all living systems. Back-action is the universal physical mechanism for life. What happens is that the self-measuring system self-organizes its wave function so that it splits into nonoverlapping wave packets. That is, the system creates its own measuring observable N in a self-consistent way and then chooses which channel to occupy. This is free will. Only conscious systems can do this trick. Without back-action beyond orthodox quantum theory there is never an effective collapse into one actual classical world. So your "level one" is the hidden-variable material system of classical particles and classical fields. Your "level two" is the "passive" quantum pilot wave. Finally, your "level three" is the back-action b which enables the coming into being of the conscious self-organizing adaptive system that selects its own destiny. This is the physical meaning of freedom.
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