evolution of consciousness: a new comment (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, December 10, 2021, 19:28 (1077 days ago) @ David Turell

A new book makes an attempt, looking at the amazing complexity of the brain:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/being-you-review-why-we-have-a-sense-of-self-11639093233?p...

"Mr. Seth argues that if we are to understand consciousness better, we would do well to stop going after the easy or hard problem. Instead he poses the “real problem” of consciousness. It requires that we explain “why a particular pattern of brain activity—or other physical process—maps to a particular kind of conscious experience, not merely establishing that it does.” His general answer to the “why” question is that our minds are prediction machines, making informed guesses not only about the world but about what is going on in our own bodies. As he puts it: “The entirety of perceptual experience is a neuronal fantasy that remains yoked to the world through a continuous making and remaking of perceptual best guesses.”

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"Mr. Seth’s understanding of the mind as a prediction machine entails the idea that we don’t perceive the world as it is. Rather our perceptions are “controlled hallucinations,” designed by evolution to “enhance our survival prospects, not to be a transparent window onto an external reality.”

"The same is true of our sense of self. “The self is not an immutable entity that lurks behind the windows of the eyes, looking out into the world and controlling the body as a pilot controls a plane,” he says. It is rather a hodgepodge of functions that give us the abilities to perceive the world from a point of view, to make decisions, to possess a narrative sense of autobiography and to locate ourselves in society. The feeling that we have that this is all the work of a singular subject is just another controlled hallucination.

"Mr. Seth is meticulously precise in his use of language, for the purposes of clarity and rigor. But I’m not so sure that he was wise to use words like “hallucination” and “fantasy.” As he says, there is a big difference between normal perceptions when “what we perceive is tied to—controlled by—causes in the world” and what we normally call hallucinations, when our perceptions have “lost their grip on these causes.” Of course, how the world is in itself and how it seems to us must be different: All perception has to be mediated through the senses. But to call these representations “hallucinations” invites the misunderstanding that we never have a grip on reality at all.

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"...his chapter on artificial intelligence cuts through the froth and hype, arguing that fears that conscious AI is just around the corner are based on the false assumption that consciousness and intelligence are intimately linked: “that consciousness will just come along for the ride.” It ignores the fact that consciousness is “a deeply embodied biological process.”

Comment: Pure materialism telling us that consciousness is simply an illusion the brain creates. We know from rabbit-duck illusions the brain presents us with patterns automatically in a helpful manner, but we cannot extrapolate from that observation. Consciousness in NDE's with no functioning brain tell us that. I'm currently reading Bruce Greyson's book 'After', about NDE's, and will discuss it when I'm finished.