17/04/2016 •Withinonlythreeweeks,the“Icandothis” groupdemonstratedimprovementsin healthandanincreaseinparticipation ingroupactivities. 1/23/17 •By18months,theirdeathratewasreduced by50percent. DIFFERENT VIEWS OF CONSCIOUSNESS 17/04/2016 DIFFERENT VIEWS OF CONSCIOUSNESS * Consciousness is irrelevant Conventionalscience: * Consciousness is irrelevant “Themoretheuniverse seemscomprehensible, themoreitalsoseems pointless.” * Consciousness is just an excretum of brain ~StevenWeinberg Nobelist,physics,1979 Conventionalscienceinsiststhat _____________________________________________________________ WeinbergS.The FirstThreeMinutes. NewYork,NY:BasicBooks;1993:154. =consciousness “We’reallzombies. Nobodyisconscious.” ~DanielDennett …inspiteofthefactthatnohumanbeinghasever philosopher,TuftsUniversity observedconsciousnessbeingproducedby thebrain,orbyanythingelse. _______________________________________________________________ DennettD.ConsciousnessExplained.Boston,MA:BackBayBooks;1992:406. 17/04/2016 17/04/2016 22 Conventionalscience: 17/04/2016 Conventionalscience: 17/04/2016 11 “Thebrainisjustacomputermadeofmeat.” “Whenweconsider whetherfreewillisan —MarvinMinsky illusionorreality, weare Conventionalscience: DIFFERENT VIEWS OF CONSCIOUSNESS “[A]person’smentalactivitiesArtificial IntelligenceLab lookingintoanabyss. MIT Whatseemstoconfront areentirelyduetothebehavior “Theusisbrainaplungeisjustintoacomputernihilismmadeofmeat.” ofnervecells,glial cells,andthe 19272016 anddespair.” atoms,ions,andmoleculesthat —MarvinMinsky makeupandinfluencethem.” ~DanielDennett ArtificialIntelligenceLab = = philosopher,TuftsUniversity MIT * Consciousness is irrelevant ~SirFrancisCrick ___________________________________________________ DennettDC.Quotedin:Overbye D.Freewill:Nowyouhaveit, nowyoudon’t.NewYorkTimesonline.January2,2007. neurophysiologist 19272016 NobelPrize,1962 * Consciousness is just an excretum of brain __________________ = = TheAstonishingHypothesis.NewYork: Simon&Schuster;1994. 19262004 * Consciousness cannot be explained by brain Conventionalscience: “ThinkinGisjustthemeat Conventionalscience: talkinGtoitself.It’s Generatedbythebrainand “WhenIdieIshall whenwedie,unfortunately Conventionalscience: rot,andnothing thatdieswithus.Wecan ofmyegoshall statethatcategorically.” “ThinkinGisjustthemeat remain.” talkinGtoitself.It’s —KarenStollznow,PhD Generatedbythebrainand ~LordBertrandRussell linguist whenwedie,unfortunately mathematician,philosopher thatdieswithus.Wecan ___________________________________________________ statethatcategorically.” Stollznow K.Quotedin:WillStor,PostcardsfromtheedGe. 18721970 GoodWeekendMaGazine,TheAge(Melbournenewspaper) . —KarenStollznow,PhD linguist ___________________________________________________ Stollznow K.Quotedin:WillStor,PostcardsfromtheedGe. GoodWeekend20MaGazine,TheAge(Melbournenewspaper) . 23 12 20 1 16/04/2016 “Thescientificstudyofconsciousness isintheembarrassingpositionofhaving noscientifictheoryofconsciousness.” ~DonaldHoffman 1/23/17 cognitivescientist U.CaliforniaIrvine 16/04/2016 16/04/2016 16/04/2016 DonaldHoffman.Consciousnessandthemindbodyproblem.Mind&Matter. 2008;6(1):87121. HowPhoto:couldhttp://www.lps.uci.edu/files/thebrainimagecache/155x175_scale_croproducep/socsci/profiles/photos/ddhoff_consciousness?117265.jpg 16/04/2016 Whatisconsciousness? Consciousnessasfundamental “Suchaprocesshasnotandneverwillbe DIFFERENT VIEWS “AlthoughOF CONSCIOUSNESSIthinkthatlifemaybetheresult specified.Itamountstosayingthattable ofanaccident,Idonotthinkthatof salt,onceitentersthebody,findsaway “Consciousnessisafundamentalprinciple consciousness.Consciousnesscannot todissolveintheblood,enterthebrain, thatunderliesallknowingandbeing. beaccountedforinphysicalterms.For andindoingsolearnstothink,feel,and * ConsciousnessInafundamentalsense, consciousnessis irrelevant reason.”Howcouldconsciousnesspossibly consciousnessisabsolutelyfundamental. “Thescientificstudyofconsciousness isthesourceofawareness….[It]iswhat arisefromthephysicalbrain? isintheembarrassingpositionofhaving Itcannotbeaccountedfor “Positingconsciousnessasmorefundamental noscientifictheoryofconsciousness.” makesawarenesspossible.” intermsofanythingelse….” thananythingphysical,isthemostreasonable * Consciousness is just an excretum of brain “Beatstheheckoutofme.Ihavesome ~ErwinSchrödinger alternative.” ~K.RamakrishnaRao,PhD prejudices,butnoideaofhowtobegin ~DonaldHoffman NobelPrize,1933 tolook~Menasfora Kafatos,defensibleRudolphanswer.E.Tanzi,AndDeepak Chopra cognitivescientist * Consciousness cannot be explained by brain “HowConsciousnessBecomesthePhysicalUniverse” U.CaliforniaIrvine K.RamakrishnaRao.CognitiveAnomalies,ConsciousnessandYoga. VolumeXVI,Part1.HistoryofScience, neitherdoesanyoneelse.” PhilosophyandCultureinIndianCivilization. (D.P.Chattopadhyaya,generaleditor.)NewDelhi,India:Centrefor ErwinSchrödinger.Quotedin:WalterMoore.ALifeofErwinSchrödinger. Cantoedition. StudiesinCivilizationsandMatrixPublishers(jointpublishers):2011:352. Cambridge,UK:CambridgeUniversityPress.1994:181. In:CosmologyofConsciousness:QuantumPhysics&NeuroscienceofMind. 18871961 (RudolfSchild,ed.)~Cambridge,StevenMA:CosmologyPinker SciencePublishers;2011:516 16/04/2016 * Consciousness is fundamental experimentalpsychologist HarvardUniversity DonaldHoffman.Consciousnessandthemindbodyproblem.Mind&Matter. 2008;6(1):87121. StevenPinker.HowtheMindWorks. NewYork,NY:W.W.Norton;1997:146. Photo:http://www.lps.uci.edu/files/imagecache/155x175_scale_crop/socsci/profiles/photos/ddhoff_117265.jpg Photo:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Steven_Pinker_2011.jpg “ "The Consciousnesstime seems toas havefundamental come Consciousnessasfundamental “Theoriginoflifeisatotal when psychology must discard “Iproposethatconsciousexperiencebe “Iregardconsciousnessasfundamental.Ire mystery,andsoistheexistence all reference to consciousness; consideredafundamentalfeature, “Nobodyhasthefaintest ofhumanconsciousness. gard matterasderivativefromconsciousness. 47 irreducibletoanything ideawhatconsciousnessis…. Wehavenoclearideahow whenWe it cannotneed noget longerbehind deludeconsciousness. theHowelectricalcoulddischargesconsciousness possibly Idon’thaveanyidea.Nordoes itselfEverything into thinkingthatwe thattalk itabout, is everythingthat morebasic….” anybodyelse,includingthe occurringariseinfromnervecellstheinphysical brain? ourbrainsareconnected weregardasexisting,postulates philosophersofmind.” making mental states the object ~DavidJ.Chalmers DavidJ. “Beatswithourthefeelingsheckandoutofme.Ihavesome consciousness.” desiresandactions.” of observation.” mathematician,philosopher ~StuartKauffman prejudices,butnoideaofhowtobegin theoreticalbiologist John Watson (1913) tolook~forFreemanadefensibleDyson answer.And ~MaxPlanck &complexsystemstheorist thefounderofquantummechanics physicist neitherdoesanyoneelse.” NobelPrize,Physics,1918 _____________________________ ChalmersDJ.1995.Thepuzzleof MaxPlanck.TheObserver. London,UK;January29,1931 consciousexperience.ScientificAmerican. Godenough.InterviewofStuartKauffmanbyStevePaulson. FreemanDyson.Howweknow.~TheStevenNewYorkReviewPinkerofBooks. March10,2011;LVIII(4):812. www.salon.com/env/atoms_eden/w008/11/19/stuart_kauffman/index1.html 18581947 273(6):806.http://consc.net/papers/puzzle.pdf experimentalpsychologist Photo:http://www.ucalgary.ca/oncampus/weekly/april2205/kauffman.jpg HarvardUniversity StevenPinker.HowtheMindWorks. NewYork,NY:W.W.Norton;1997:146. Photo:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Steven_Pinker_2011.jpg 17 18 “Nobody48hastheslightest ideahowanythingmaterial couldbeconscious.Nobody 16/04/2016 evenknowswhatitwouldbe 47 liketohavetheslightestidea abouthowanythingmaterial couldbeconscious.Somuch forthephilosophyof DIFFERENT VIEWS consciousness.”OF CONSCIOUSNESS ~JerryFodor Consciousnessasfundamental philosopher,RutgersUniversity “AlthoughIthinkthatlifemaybetheresult JerryFodor.Thebigidea:Cantherebeascienceofmind? ofanaccident,Idonotthinkthatof * Consciousness is irrelevant TimesLiterarySupplement. July3,1992:57. consciousness.Consciousnesscannot beaccountedforinphysicalterms.For * Consciousness is just an excretum of brain consciousnessisabsolutelyfundamental. Itcannotbeaccountedfor * Consciousness cannot be explained by brain 49 intermsofanythingelse….” ~ErwinSchrödinger * Consciousness is fundamental NobelPrize,1933 ErwinSchrödinger.Quotedin:WalterMoore.ALifeofErwinSchrödinger. Cantoedition. Cambridge,UK:CambridgeUniversityPress.1994:181. * Consciousness is irrelevant to physics 18871961 Consciousnessasfundamental “Iproposethatconsciousexperiencebe consideredafundamentalfeature, irreducibletoanything morebasic….” ~DavidJ.Chalmers DavidJ. mathematician,philosopher _____________________________ ChalmersDJ.1995.Thepuzzleof consciousexperience.ScientificAmerican. 273(6):806.http://consc.net/papers/puzzle.pdf 2 18 1/23/17 DIFFERENT VIEWS OF CONSCIOUSNESS * Consciousness is irrelevant * Consciousness is just an excretum of brain * Consciousness cannot be explained by brain* 16/04/2016 * Consciousness is fundamental * Consciousness is irrelevant to physics Physicscannotexplainconsciousness * Consciousness is part of physics “Myposition[onconsciousness]demands amajorrevolutioninphysics….[T]here is somethingveryfundamentalmissingfrom currentscience.Ourunderstandingat thistimeisnotadequateandwe’regoing tohavetomovetonewregionsofscience….” ~SIR ROGER PENROSE mathematicalphysicist ___________________________________________ SirRogerPenrose.Quotedin:KarlGiberson.Themanwhofelltoearth.InterviewwithSir RogerPenrose.Science&Spirit.