Stirring the mental pot for a Friday morning!
Not too long ago, I came across the website The Big Think. It tickled my curiosity to the extent that I subscribed. On November 6th an essay was published with the wonderful title of ‘Consciousness: The Black Hole of Neuroscience‘. Couldn’t resist that! Here’s how that essay started,
What’s the Big Idea?
“By the word ‘thought’ (‘pensée’) I understand all that of which we are conscious as operating in us.” –Renee Descartes
The simplest description of a black hole is a region of space-time from which no light is reflected and nothing escapes. The simplest description of consciousness is a mind that absorbs many things and attends to a few of them. Neither of these concepts can be captured quantitatively. Together they suggest the appealing possibility that endlessness surrounds us and infinity is within.
That last sentence jumped off the page at me – hence me using it as the title of this post.
If this interests you at all, then do read the full item. That closes like this …
Hirsch sees it more practically. Though functional imaging has not explained where perception comes from, it has important applications for unconscious patients. “The boundaries have been broken a little bit, clinically,” she says. “As we study patients with disorders of consciousness, we can probe their levels of awareness in ways that other traditional ways of asking them to respond.”
It’s no different than any other aspect of the brain that we cannot presently explain, she says:
For example, we don’t understand how the brain creates colors. That’s a perception that is very private – I don’t know that your perception of blue is like my perception of blue, for example. Smells are another one. I don’t know that your perception of the smell of an orange is like mine. These are the hard problems of neuroscience and philosophy that we haven’t made a great deal of progress on.
What do you think? Is the distinction between “hard problems” and “soft problems” useful, or reductive? Does the brain create consciousness? Will we ever empirically understand where it comes from or how it works?
This post is part of an ongoing series, The 21st Century Brain.
But that’s not the end of it. Browsing the comments revealed a link to the Blog called NeuroLogica Blog. The author is Steven Novella, MD. Here’s a flavour of Steven’s competencies.
Dr. Novella is an academic clinical neurologist at Yale University School of Medicine. He is the president and co-founder of the New England Skeptical Society. He is the host and producer of the popular weekly science podcast, The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe. He is also a senior fellow and Director of Science-Based Medicine at theJames Randi Educational Foundation (JREF), a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) and a founding fellow of the Institute for Science in Medicine.
The NeuroLogicaBlog covers news and issues in neuroscience, but also general science, scientific skepticism, philosophy of science, critical thinking, and the intersection of science with the media and society.
Dr. Novella also contributes every Sunday to The Rogues Gallery, the official blog of the SGU, every Monday to SkepticBlog, and every Wednesday to Science-Based Medicine, a blog dedicated to issues of science and medicine.
I couldn’t resist doing a search on Dr. Novella’s blog using the search term ‘consciousness’. What a rich vein! Here’s just one example of what came to light,
Neuroscience research has been increasingly fleshing out the fascinating and complex relationship between the subconscious processing of the brain and our conscious awareness. We all labor under the illusion that our decisions, feelings, and behaviors are all conscious. When we do something, it seems, it is because we wanted to do it. We are very good, in fact, at retrofitting a logical explanation for why we consciously did something.
But much of our brain’s decision making occurs at a subconscious level. When presented with a choice various parts of our brains make a calculation – processing the choice, weighing varying factors based upon some neuro-algorithm, and then present that choice to our conscious mind (the global workspace, if you accept this hypothesis). Research shows that if we change the subconscious algorithm, by suppressing, for example, one part of the brain, the decision-making process is altered. We are not aware of this, and we still are under the illusion that the decision was completely conscious.
Strongly recommend that you read the article in full; it is deeply fascinating. And then laugh out loud, as I did, when you read the first comment made to that article,
I find this fascinating even though I am not conciously aware of why!
Learning from Dogs 
All we see, hear, feel, smell, hear or otherwise perceive is no more than fundamental particles whizzing about. Moreover, our seemingly-substantial bodies are mostly empty space and if reduced to their fundamental particles would be too small to see on any microscope.
Pain seems to be “real” enough, but otherwise life and indeed consciousness seems to me no more than a split-second and delusional dream. “I think, therefore I am.” seems to me far from the self-evident truth people seem to attribute to it.
As for “decisions”, it is important not to get too carried away by pointless academic musing. Some decisions are “unconscious” because they do not need a lot of conscious input for a “successful” outcome and the survival of the thinker. Other decisions are the complete opposite. Nothing very subtle about that, is there?
Where we go wrong is in relying too much on “instinct” and not resetting our brains more often. For example, if your parents always voted Labour then you may tend not to reset your brain when it comes to the vote. Blair would have got your vote even if it were one of the most insane decisions you could make – which of course it was.
So, my conclusion is, reset your brain – rely less on previous experience and assumptions because you could either have been misinterpreting the evidence on which you once made a conscious and rational decision or of course the data (circumatances) may have changed. For example, Labour might ONCE have been a rational and indeed reasonable choice but given the change in the world and the fact that Milliband Minor is now leader it would now of course be completely insane.
People brainwashed by their parents’ religious lunacies of course never reset their brains. It strikes me that we need a new drug to help this process. Some of the EU elite need their brains resetting for a start.
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Have you come across Dr. Michael Shermer’s book Believing Brain? P.
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I was taught that the deeper one goes within, the more it resembles the outside. I think the secret to a good life is to build a trusting relationship with one’s subconscious. In our culture we have developed a generally contentious relationship with our subconscious. Studies clearly show that the subconscious mind does all the heavy lifting and then presents packaged output, that the conscious mind has to test in the real world. The subconscious makes the decisions and then notifies the conscious mind, juggling the timing so that we think we make the decision. In some ways it would seem that the sub is running a different set of priorities, or maybe a very clever con. Solving this inner conflict is job one. The first step is to probe that inner infinity. Make peace with your invisible self.
Was just rereading Chalmers and Dennet on the hard and soft problem yesterday. Looks like it has produced a giant smoke screen obscuring any worthwhile understanding of consciousness. It seems obvious to me that the deception runs deep.
Like your blog. =-)
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Jim,
Ditto your Blog although it seems not to have been update for a while. Is the URL http://lifeos.wordpress.com/ correct?
Anyway, big thanks for calling by here and your extensive comment very much appreciated,
Paul
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Infinity is a conception within, so it is within… According to me, though, it may be limited in the grander scheme of things… See: http://patriceayme.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/largest-number/
BTW, CERN is confirming TL neutrinos, for which I also have an explanation…
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Faster Than Light, FTL, not just TL…
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~Does the brain create consciousness?
Is there some kind of collective human unconscious, because at times it would seem so, in mass gatherings etc.
~ Will we ever empirically understand where it comes from or how it works?
neuroscience research is growing at an astounding rate but I think some things are meant to remain a mystery 😀
Great post, I will be sure to read the full article when I’m not so sleepy.
x
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@kimber; If the brain does not create consciousness, who, what does?
Verily the quantum is within, and, although a mystery, still, some clouds are dispersing…. One point; the Quantum is central to life. life is not just a machine, it’s a Quantum machine..
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Kimber, Patrice touches on the deep, inner truth of it all. How the push for a theory of everything, Einstein’s unfulfilled dream, is leading us into some very strange places – the world of quanta, multiple dimensions, parallel universes, and more. http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/nova-the-elegant-universe/ is worth watching if you want to explore further. P.
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