On point: the consciousness quagmire (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, September 18, 2015, 14:04 (3354 days ago) @ romansh

An Economist article on what is consciousness and how does the brain seem to create it:-http://www.economist.com/news/science-brief/21664060-final-brief-our-series-looks-most-profound-scientific-mystery-all-one-"TMS of the temporoparietal junction also reduces someone's ability to empathise with the mental states of others. That suggests this part of the brain helps generate “theory of mind”—the ability to recognise that other creatures, too, have minds. Some see this link as more than coincidence. Seeking an evolutionary explanation for consciousness, they suggest that an animal which can model another's behaviour can gain an advantage by anticipating it. They further suggest that, since the only model available to a mind that wishes to understand another's is itself, a theory of mind necessarily requires self-awareness. In other words, consciousness.-***-"The nub of the hard problem, then, is to make this ineffability effable. Other fields of scientific endeavour circumvent ineffability with mathematics. No one can truly conceive of a light-year or a nanosecond, let alone extra dimensions or wave-particle duality, but maths makes these ideas tractable. No such short-cut invented so far can take a human inside the mind of a bat. Indeed, for all the sophistication of theory-of-mind it is difficult, as everyday experience shows, to take a human being inside the mind of another human being. The hard problem may thus turn out to be the impossible problem, the one that science can never solve. The Oracle at Delphi said, “know thyself.” Difficult. But a piece of cake compared with knowing others."-Comment: Brain damage damages consciousness, but that dos not remove the receiver concept. I know I am conscious. I make the assumption you are.