The consciousness wars: can scientists ever agree on how the mind works?
Nobody knows how consciousness works – but top researchers are fighting over which theories are really science
Tim Baynetheconversation.com
To return to the issue of subjectivity, consider: is the reinstantiated mind the same consciousness as the person we just scanned? But it is not easily resolved, or even readily understood. How do we distinguish a process that is conscious from one that just acts as if it is conscious?We can’t simply ask it. If it says “Hey I’m conscious,” does... See more
Ray Kurzweil • The Law of Accelerating Returns « the Kurzweil Library + collections
An experiment seven years in the making has uncovered new insights into the nature of consciousness and challenges two prominent, competing scientific theories: Integrated Information Theory (IIT) and Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNWT).
- IIT suggests that consciousness emerges when information inside a system (like the brain) is highly connected
Just a moment...
Not only do we not agree on how to measure or recognize consciousness in others, but we are also unable to even “prove” it exists in ourselves. Science often dismisses our individual experiences—what it feels like to smell an orange, or to be in love—as qualia. We are left with theories and metaphors for consciousness: A stream of experience. A
... See moreRay Nayler • The Mountain in the Sea: A Novel
there is an essential meaning of the word “consciousness,” one that contemporary neuroscientists, biologists, psychologists, or philosophers can recognize, even though they approach the phenomenon with varied methods and explain it in different ways. For all of them, more often than not, “consciousness” is a synonym of mental experience. And what
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