
Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness

I can be clear about my biases, too. I spent the better part of a decade doing laboratory research on a tiny parasite that infects mouse brains and maybe makes the infected host mouse prefer the smell of cat urine just a little bit more than they had before. Thus, I am a mind-control parasite guy.
Patrick House • Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness
Instead, she confabulated the reasons behind the laughter and mirth because the brain abhors a story vacuum and because the mammalian brain is a pattern-recognizing monster, a briny sac full of trillions of coincidence detectors that are only useful if there are connections between things.
Patrick House • Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness
And so, they argued, if we include the ears and the acoustic sensing apparatus as part of Anna’s boundaries, should we not also include the web of the spider? Should we thus not also count the electrode that prodded her brain during surgery, since it was able to induce laughter, joy, and mirth no differently than if another part of her brain had
... See morePatrick House • Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness
Neuroscience is a frustrating field to be in. We have mostly failed, as there is little point to celebrate an understanding of small pieces of something if you cannot prevent the failures of its whole. We know very little about the things we wish to know much more about, and the strain on mental, subjective well-being today is, from the global
... See morePatrick House • Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness
Thus the 1980s and early 1990s became an era of near-Cambrian explosiveness and introduced, through narrative and the miniaturization of circuit boards, the peak of pinball creativity, interest, revenue, and popularity.
Patrick House • Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness
These effects are less like a pause button for consciousness and more like a needle lifted off a spinning record.4
Patrick House • Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness
Which means that consciousness is not something passed on or recycled—like single molecules of water, which are retained as they move about the earth as ice, water, or dew—from one living creature to the next.
Patrick House • Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness
Then the brain kicked in, its only job to reduce the metabolic expense of any and all of Anna’s present or future movements.
Patrick House • Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness
Instead, consciousness can be grown from “scratch” with only a few well-timed molecular parts and plans laid out.