Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal - The Deepest Theories of Consciousness | The Consciousness Iceberg [Layer 3]
Episode Date: August 30, 2024As a listener of TOE, you can now enjoy full digital access to The Economist and all it has to offer. Get a 20% off discount by visiting: https://www.economist.com/toe Today, we dive deeper into the ...theories of consciousness in Layer 3 of The Consciousness Iceberg, exploring Heidegger's concept of Dasein, the Attention Schema Theory, EM Field Topology, Joscha Bach's Conductor Theory, and Donald Hoffman's Conscious Realism. IMPORTANT LINKS: - Patreon: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal (early access to ad-free audio episodes!) - Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e - Become a YouTube Member Here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdWIQh9DGG6uhJk8eyIFl1w/join - Join TOEmail at https://www.curtjaimungal.org Layer 1: https://youtu.be/GDjnEiys98o Layer 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR4cpn8m9i0 Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro 01:32 - Heidegger's Concept of Dasein 04:19 - Attention Schema Theory 7:06 - EM Field Topology and the Boundary Problem 11:07 - Joscha Bach's Conductor Theory 18:18 - Donald Hoffman's Conscious Realism 22:42 - Nir Lahav's Relativistic Consciousness 30:30 - Outro / Support TOE Links Mentioned: - John Vervaeke's Relevance Realization (Layer 2) - https://youtu.be/TR4cpn8m9i0?si=3oVj7BMf46Rn3HOx - Rupert Spira: Non-Dualism, God, & Death - https://youtu.be/dWLd9y1MG4c?si=AOW_lueDcK-xB8HX\ - Andres Gomex Emilsson (Qualia Research Institute) - https://qri.org/team - Fitness Beats Truth by Donald Hoffman - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33231784/ - Exposing the Matrix | Donald Hoffman Λ John Vervaeke - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwTpdCVsttI - Heidegger Portrait - https://www.newstatesman.com/the-weekend-essay/2023/04/philosopher-martin-heidegger-nazi-legacy-influence-right-wing-ideology - Attention Scheme Theory Michael Graziano - https://youtu.be/Tp5yqBEknUI?si=T9uXSHMG8de70peu - Joscha Bach Λ Karl Friston: Ai, Death, Self, God, Consciousness - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcQMYNi9a2w - The Biggest Insight From Joscha Bach and Michael Levin's Work - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG_5AmPK2q4 - Michael Levin Λ Joscha Bach: Collective Intelligence - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgMFnfB5E_A - Donald Hoffman Λ Joscha Bach: Consciousness, Gödel, Reality - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhSlYfVtgww - Joscha Bach Λ Ben Goertzel: Conscious Ai, LLMs, AGI - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw7omaQ8SgA - A Relativistic Theory of Consciousness - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35801192/ - Roger Penrose | Gravity, Hawking Points and Twistor Theory - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gl8pwY2kW8 - Lahav Nir About Me: https://www.lahavnir.com/about-me - Do We See Icons or Reality? A Review of Donald Hoffman’s The Case Against Reality, Brian Martin - https://social-epistemology.com/2019/12/05/do-we-see-icons-or-reality-a-review-of-donald-hoffmans-the-case-against-reality-brian-martin/ - Escaping the Illusion: Bernardo Kastrup Exposes Reality - https://youtu.be/lAB21FAXCDE?si=qmrsi-yDxXwtxwhD #science #consciousness #donaldhoffman #joschabach Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Welcome to the Consciousness Iceberg, Layer 3, where this time we'll delve into the even
deeper kaleidoscopic world of explaining every theory of consciousness in a straightforward manner,
connecting philosophical ideas to modern theories of cognitive science. In Layer 1,
we laid the groundwork by defining consciousness, addressing the mind-body problem, and exploring
the nature of sleep, dreams, altered states. We also touched on the debate between free will and
determinism, questioned the nature of the self and identity,
there's a link in the description if you'd like to see that, and in Layer 2 we ventured into the
more challenging aspects such as the hard problem of consciousness, phalia, what is it, non-dualism,
what is it, what does Indian philosophy have to say about it, and other theories such as global
workspace as well as Carl Jung's ideas on consciousness. With all of that groundwork laid we're now ready to plunge into layer three exploring Heidegger's
notion of Dasein. What is the attention schema theory? What are the latest
theories from thinkers such as Donald Hoffman and Joschka Bach? We also tackle
the boundary problem in consciousness as articulated by Andreas Gomez Emelson as
well as addressing the relativistic view of consciousness
by Nir Lehov. This is a radically new theory proposed in the 2020s. We'll see how all
of these frameworks interact, complement, and contradict one another.
My name's Kurt Jaimungal, and I use my background in mathematical physics to analyze theories
of everything. So, let's begin.
Heidegger's concept of Dasein.
The concept of Dasein is prevalent in Heidegger's philosophy, particularly in his seminal existential
work, Being and Time.
The term Dasein is often translated as being there or presence.
Essentially, it's human consciousness as a form of being that's aware of and questions
its own existence.
In the context of consciousness studies, Dasein is significant because it places an emphasis
on consciousness having an active engagement with the world.
Heidegger posits that our consciousness, or Dasein, is always thrown in the world.
This means that we find ourselves in a context that we didn't choose, however,
we still must navigate it. And this navigation involves both perceiving objects and understanding
them as part of a meaningful whole, or a quote-unquote world in Heideggerian terms.
You can think of this as a fusion of reductionism and holism.
Dossine is always already involved in a world of significance where things show up as relevant
or irrelevant, useful or useless based on our intentions and concerns.
This relates to John Vervaeke's relevance realization that we talked about in the previous
layer.
Many views on consciousness emphasize the passive observer aspect, such as some forms
of mindfulness meditation, where you watch
your thoughts rather than become the author of your thoughts.
Heidegger says this is a mistake.
Consciousness doesn't mirror a reality that exists, it's a co-creator, a negotiator of
meaning.
One aspect of Dasein is its temporal nature.
Heidegger argues that Dasein is always ahead of itself,
projecting into the future while being grounded in its past, what he calls being toward death.
In this way, it's common to the predictive approaches of Karl Friston, which will come
up in Layer 4. So subscribe to get notified.
This temporal structure means that consciousness is inherently future oriented.
It's your orientation to the future that shapes your present.
This stands in contrast to the more present oriented views, such as those of some meditative
practices.
Heidegger suggests that the notion that consciousness can be fully understood by breaking it down
into its components or correlating it with neural processes is a foolish one.
Instead, Dasein suggests that consciousness is an irreducible phenomenon, intertwined
with our being in the world.
This resonates with modern theories that emphasize the embodied and embedded nature of consciousness,
such as inactivism and the extended mind hypothesis, while it rejects approaches that attempt to
explain consciousness solely in terms of brain activity.
Attention Schema Theory
Attention Schema Theory is a relatively recent theory in the study of consciousness proposed
by neuroscientist Michael Graziano. It offers a compelling explanation for how consciousness
arises from the brain's mechanisms for attention. The core idea of AST is that the brain constructs models or schemas of various
processes to determine and control them. For instance, to control the movement of
the body, the brain creates a model of the body's position in space, known as a
body schema. Similarly, Graziano proposes that the brain constructs an attention
schema, a model of where attention is directed
And what it's focusing on according to AST
Consciousness arises when the brain creates a model of its own attention this self modeling of attention is what gives us the experience of being
aware in other words
Consciousness is the brain's method of
Representing to itself that it's attending to something
is the brain's method of representing to itself that it's attending to something. AST doesn't claim that attention itself is consciousness, but rather that the brain's
internal model of attention is what we experience as consciousness.
This theory suggests that consciousness isn't a fundamental property of the brain, rather
it's a useful construct, a model, or a representation if you will.
One that helps the brain manage complex tasks and social interactions.
One of the intriguing aspects or implications of AST is its potential to explain the quote-unquote
explanatory gap. That is, the question of why and how physical processes give rise to subjective experience.
Graziano suggests that this gap may be a result of the brain's attention schema
being inherently incomplete. The brain models attention as an intangible, ineffable process,
leading us to experience it as something fundamentally mysterious, even though it's
just a model constructed by the brain. But Kurt, what does that even mean? Well, AST aligns with
some elements of predictive processing theories where the brain is seen
as a prediction machine, constantly generating models of the world to guide behavior.
In the case of consciousness, AST posits that the brain generates a model of itself paying
attention, and this self-model is what we experience as being conscious.
To better understand this concept, imagine it like the following.
When you're watching a movie, you're aware of the characters and the plot.
However, you're not necessarily aware of the projector that's casting the images on the
screen.
Your brain's attention schema is like the projector.
It's responsible for creating the experience, but it remains obscured.
It remains hidden from your conscious awareness.
Another way to think of it is like a spotlight that illuminates certain
aspects of your experience while leaving others in the dark. So critics of AST
argue that it doesn't fully account for the qualitative aspects of consciousness,
what philosophers call qualia. However, proponents of AST suggest that it does offer a robust
framework for integrating attention and awareness, which are the key components of conscious
experience.
EM Field Topology and the Boundary Problem
The boundary problem in consciousness research is an under-explored area closely related
to the better-known binding problem. while the binding problem deals with how disparate neuronal activities coalesce into
a unified conscious experience, see layer 2, the boundary problem asks why and how these
experiences have distinct limits.
Why does our sense of self and experience have clear edges?
Now note that some like Rupert Spira argue that not only does consciousness not have
so-called limits, but counterintuitively, neither does our experience of consciousness
have limits.
You can see this podcast with Rupert Spira here, but for today, I want to talk about
a theory created by Andreas Gomez-Emmelson.
Electromagnetic field topology is an approach to tackling this delineation issue. This theory suggests that the topology of EM fields in the
brain could create hard boundaries for conscious experiences. These boundaries
are defined by the physical and topological properties of EM fields.
This theory rests on the principle of topological segmentation, where different
segments of the brain's electromagnetic
field are enclosed within distinct topological boundaries.
This segmentation could theoretically account for why our consciousness feels segmented
into specific bounded experiences.
Now let's talk about some key features of EM field topology.
So number one, you have a holistic enclosure. EM fields create these enclosures
around areas of high neuronal activity,
segmenting these from the rest of the brain activity.
Number two, frame invariance.
These boundaries are not static
across different states of consciousness.
Instead, the very nature of various states of consciousness
stems from how these boundaries dynamically shift,
morph and change. There are both global boundaries of various states of consciousness stems from how these boundaries dynamically shift, morph,
and change. There are both global boundaries that segment out larger conscious experiences
and local boundaries that affect immediate experiential content. This dynamic interaction
allows for a multitude of pathways within our conscious landscape, similar to how altering
the shape of a balloon creates different paths within it.
Now number three, there's downward causality.
The segmented fields can influence neuronal activity within their boundaries, suggesting
a two-way interaction between consciousness and brain activity.
And lastly, number four, there's no need for strong emergence.
EM field topology and its holistic top-down effects are all implied by the
laws of physics, aligning more with the form of weak emergence. This perspective shifts from a
classical atomistic view to one that appreciates continuous field dynamics and topological changes
as natural phenomena. This approach addresses not only how consciousness is bounded, but
simultaneously enhances our understanding of how different conscious states, such as waking and various altered states, could be maintained or shifted through changes in the EM field topology.
Now, topology, by the way, in this sense, is a fancy term for quote unquote mapping the connectivity.
Or you can just think of it as what parts are connected to what.
Testing this theory involves simulations and empirical research, focusing on how EM fields
maintain consistent Lorentz invariance despite topological deformations. This showcases that the
EM fields are independent of observational frame of reference. Now solving the boundary problem
could tell us why our experiences are framed the way they are,
potentially leading to new ways to manipulate or enhance consciousness through technological means.
Yoshi Box Theory
Yoshi Box Theory suggests that cortical structures result from reward-driven learning,
based on signals from the motivational system and the structure of the data being learned.
A cortical structure, by the way, is just a dressed up manner of referring to any part
of the cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the brain.
Now at the heart of this theory is the conductor, the so-called conductor, which is a computational
structure trained to regulate the activity of other cortical functionality.
This conductor directs attention and provides executive function by altering the activity
and parameterization of other cortical structures. It integrates aspects of the processes it
attends to into a protocol, which is then used for reflection and learning.
But what are the elementary agents in this theory?
Bach describes them as columns in the cerebral cortex.
These columns self-organize into larger organizational units of brain areas through developmental
reinforcement learning.
The activity of this cortical orchestra is highly distributed and paralyzed.
It can't be experienced as a whole. The conductor, located in the
prefrontal cortex, coordinates the performance. It's not a homunculus, instead it's a set
of dynamic function approximators. While most cortical instruments regulate the dynamics
and interactions of this organism with the environment, the conductor regulates the dynamics of the orchestra itself.
Now, you might be wondering, where does experience get integrated? Bach states that the conductor is
the only place where this happens. Information not integrated into the protocol can't become
functionally relevant to the system's reflection, the production of its utterances, or the generation of its cohesive self-model.
So, what happens without the conductor? Bach asserts that our brain can still perform most
of its functions. We'd be sleepwalkers, capable of coordinated perceptual and motor
action, yet lacking central coherence and reflection.
Memories play a significant role, by the way, in box theory.
Memories can be generated by reactivating a cortical configuration via the links and
parameters stored at the corresponding point in the protocol.
Reflective access to the protocol is itself a process that can be stored in the protocol.
By accessing this, a system may remember having had experiential access.
So let's make this extremely simple. For phenomenal consciousness,
Bach claims it's necessary and sufficient that a system can access the memory of having had
an experience. What about the actuality of the experience itself? This is irrelevant.
An example illustrating this relationship between
the conductor, the protocol, and the conscious experience can be visualized
through a graph. So let's imagine a place with nodes and edges representing your
brain's cortical regions. Each node possesses specific information such as
visual data or auditory signals, or emotional responses, etc.
The conductor, which is the prefrontal cortex, selectively samples their outputs, compressing
them into some compact, serialized protocol.
Firstly, note how much you're not aware of.
Even right now, there's the air around you, there's perhaps your shoes or your socks,
or if you're on the ground, maybe some dirt underneath your soles, there's the air around you, there's perhaps your shoes or your socks or if you're
on the ground maybe some dirt underneath your soles, there's some background hum that you're
ignoring, there's maybe the scent of wood or there's maybe the scent of coffee or of
orange juice or someone else coughing in the background.
You're not consciously aware of all of this processing.
The conductor samples these outputs creating a compressed representation which is just you
sitting down listening to a podcast. When you recall this experience you're not
accessing the raw sensory data but you're accessing instead this compressed
protocol. Your subjective experience of remembering the podcast is the conductor reactivating and slightly
reinterpreting this protocol. The qualia of the pixels on the screen or the curiosity
that you have isn't a stored property. Instead, it's an emergent interpretation as your
brain reconstructs the memory. This, according to Bach, explains why our memory
often feels less vivid than the original experience. We are working from a compressed protocol,
not raw sensory data. Okay, but how does this have anything to do with the hard problem?
Consider the classical philosophical zombie thought experiment that you've heard of,
where we imagine a being physically identical to a human, however this being will lack conscious
experience.
In Bach's framework, this concept becomes incoherent.
Imagine two identical neural networks, one conscious and one a zombie.
Both have the same conductor mechanism, sampling and compressing
information into a protocol. Both can report on their experiences by accessing and interpreting
this protocol. For Bach, the conscious system doesn't have some extra ineffable property.
Its experience of consciousness is precisely its ability to access and report on its protocol.
It's equivalent to that.
So the zombie system, being identical to this, would necessarily have the same ability.
The seemingly hard problem of what it feels like to be conscious dissolves when we recognize
that this feeling itself is a construct, a so-called story the brain tells itself by interpreting its own protocol.
There's no separate experience happening alongside the information processing. The experience is the processing.
So what is phenomenal consciousness according to Bach? What is qualia according to Bach, what are feelings, what
is blueness to Bach, the phenomenal consciousness is understood as the most recent memory of
what our prefrontal cortex attended to.
Conscious experience isn't an experience of being in the world or an inner space, it's
a memory. It's the recognition of a dream generated by more than 50 brain areas
reflected in the protocol of a single region. By directing attention to its own protocol,
the conductor can store and recreate memories of its own experience being conscious. This
perspective resolves much of the difficulty in specifying an AI
implementation of consciousness. It's necessary and sufficient to realize a system that remembers
having had experienced something and can report on that memory. Bach suggests that our conscious
experience isn't a direct perception of some physical reality.
No.
Instead, it's a dream, a model constructed by our brain to represent and interact with
the world around us.
Donald Hoffman's Theory
Donald Hoffman, a cognitive scientist, argues that our visual perceptions, in general, aren't
veridical
representations of ultimate reality.
Why?
Because evolution selects for fitness to reproduce, and not for access to ontological truth.
This is outlined in his Fitness Beats Truth paper linked in the description.
Consider this.
A caveman who sees a rabbit as tasty food is more likely to survive than one who perceives
it as a complex molecular structure.
This of course presumes that the molecular structure is what's more real.
Hoffman likens our perceptions to computer interfaces, such as a folder that's on your
desktop.
Now, you see that folder and you think, is there actually a tiny folder inside your computer?
No, it's just a useful
simplification for complex binary code. Similarly, Hoffman argues that evolution shaped our perceptions
as simplistic illusions to help us navigate the world. Later in his career, Hoffman suggests that
space-time itself isn't objective reality. it's just a part of our interface.
To some physicists, this is quite obvious and straightforward because we don't have
a method of reconciling general relativity with quantum mechanics and several of the
attempts to do so posit structures where space-time emerges.
Some other physicists, however, would say that space-time not being fundamental doesn't
mean space-time is any more of an illusion than your car is an illusion because your car isn't fundamental.
So, what is real according to Donald Hoffman and his collaborator Sheytan Prakash?
Consciousness.
They propose conscious realism, which states that the objective world consists of conscious agents and their experiences.
Instead of particles creating consciousness when they form brains, consciousness creates
space-time and objects, including what we perceive as a brain.
Now let's think, how does this compare to other theories?
Let's break it down.
We have Joschabach's cortical conductor theory, which sees consciousness as a memory of what our prefrontal cortex attended to.
Hoffman disagrees, saying consciousness is fundamental, and so they diverge on the nature of reality itself.
Bach still operates within a physicalist framework, while Hoffman politely throws physicalism down the garbage chute.
Michael Graziano's attention schema theory views consciousness as the brain's model
of its own attention.
Hoffman would say that this gets it backward.
For him, consciousness isn't created by the brain, the brain is created by consciousness.
So this is what Donald Hoffman means when he says that neurons don't exist until perceived.
Bernardo Castrop's analytic idealism aligns more closely with Hoffman.
They both see consciousness as fundamental.
The key difference is that Castrup posits a universal consciousness that segments itself
into individual minds, while Hoffman describes a network of interacting conscious agents.
Heidegger's concept of Dasein emphasizes consciousness as active engagement with the world,
and Hoffman would agree, however Hoffman would add that
this world that we're engaging with is itself a construct of consciousness. Heidegger asserts
that Dasein, or human existence, and the world are inseparable and co-constitutive, with
neither having ontological priority. This contradicts Hoffman's conscious realism,
which gives ontological
priority to consciousness. André Gomes Emelson's EM field topology theory
tackles the boundary problem of consciousness. Hoffman's theory side steps
this issue entirely by making consciousness fundamental. There's no
need to explain how physical processes create bounded conscious experiences if
those physical processes are
themselves constructs of consciousness.
Okay, now you might be thinking, Kurt, what the heck about all the evidence that correlates
mental states with brain activity?
And Hoffman does have an answer.
These correlations are fomented because consciousness creates brain activity.
So yes, there's quite straightforwardly a correlation,
it's just that the causation goes in the other direction.
Near Lahav's Relativistic Consciousness
What if consciousness isn't an absolute property,
but a relative one that depends on the observer's frame of reference?
This idea is at the heart of Lahav's theory, which aims to bridge the explanatory gap between
functional and phenomenal consciousness.
Lahav starts with two key assumptions.
Consciousness, number one, has some kind of physical explanation or broad physicalism,
and then number two, that the principle of relativity holds true even
for consciousness. Okay, but what does this mean in practice? Nearest thinking
like Einstein. You start with postulates and then you see their consequences. The
consequences suggest the concept of cognitive frames of reference, that is
perspectives determined by a cognitive systems dynamics. Lahav then establishes an equivalence principle between a conscious human, Alice, let's say,
and a purported zombie AI system, say Bob, with the same cognitive structure,
but supposedly lacking phenomenal consciousness in the latter case.
If Alice and Bob obtain the same measurements and behavioral outputs,
the relativity principle dictates that they must have
the same physical laws in force. This leads us to the unintuitive conclusion that Bob, despite being
assumed to be a zombie, must also have phenomenal consciousness. Okay, so let's say you're looking
at a sunset. From your first-person perspective, you experience colors and emotions, a neuroscientist observing
your brain would see certain patterns of neural firing.
Are these two perspectives describing the same phenomenon?
According to Lahab, yes, they are just different measurements from different cognitive frames
of reference.
These are different perspectives of the same underlying phenomenon, akin to how UNRWA radiation
appears from one
perspective but not another.
But wait, you ask.
Kurt, doesn't consciousness feel private and inaccessible to outside observers?
Lahav explains this is due to the difference in measurements possible from first-person
and third-person perspectives.
From within a cognitive system, representations have causal power
and are experienced as qualia. However, when you're from the outside, we can only measure
physical substrates. Okay, so what about free will? Nir LaHav may say that it's relative,
and that this unifies determinism and libertarian free will. But let's think about what I just said. Phenomenal consciousness isn't truly private.
It just requires the right frame of reference to measure directly.
Thus, Lehov's approach aims to dissolve the hard problem by showing that the physical
patterns or the neural representations and the phenomenal properties or the qualia are
two sides of the same coin.
They're different ways the same phenomenon appears based on the observer's cognitive
perspective.
But, doesn't this just push the explanatory burden back a step?
Instead of explaining how consciousness emerges from non-conscious matter, don't we now
have to explain how it combines and evolves into complex life
forms across different frames of reference?
Lahav argues that his theory opens up new avenues for empirical research.
Yes, so he proposes experiences to test predictions about the minimal conditions for consciousness
and how these relate to sleep, or to anesthesia, or other altered states.
Altered states, by the way, were explored in Layer 1, link in the description of this
consciousness iceberg.
For instance, Nir LaHav may look for activation of specific cognitive spaces during cognitive
states and their absence during unconscious states.
Okay, but how does this theory compare to others?
Well, with
Donald Hoffman, since Lahav's theory posits consciousness as a relative
property dependent on observers frames of reference, it contradicts sharply with
Hoffman's conscious realism. While Hoffman argues consciousness is fundamental
and creates our perceived reality, LahHavre suggests consciousness is a physical phenomenon that
appears different based on perspective.
Consider Hoffman's desktop analogy.
Hoffman may say that the computer, the desk it's on, and the room all around you are
just constructs of consciousness, whereas LeHavre would argue no, these are real physical
objects but our conscious experience of them depends on our
cognitive frame of reference.
But what about Bernardo Castrop?
Castrop posits a universal consciousness that segments into individual minds.
Lahav, in contrast, grounds consciousness in physical cognitive systems.
Where Castrop sees consciousness as primary, Lahav sees it as an emergent property, albeit
one that looks different from various perspectives.
Joschabach's cortical conductor theory views consciousness as a memory of what our prefrontal
cortex attended to and this aligns more closely with Lahav than with Hoffman or Kastrup.
Both Bach and Lahav operate broadly within a physicalist framework, though Lahave would expand what
physicalism is, adding the dimension of relativity, suggesting that the quote-unquote memory Bach
describes might appear differently from various cognitive frames of reference.
So let's be clear, let's just think about an apple.
Hoffman would say that that apple doesn't exist as a physical object, it's a construct
of consciousness, an icon if you will, in our species specific interface with reality.
Whereas Castrop would look at that apple and say that apple is a manifestation within universal
consciousness experienced by an individual quote unquote alter, which is you, of this
universal consciousness. Bach would instead describe your experience as a memory of your prefrontal cortex attending to certain sensory inputs and conceptual associations giving the impression of an apple.
Now, Lahav would say that the apple is a physical object, but your conscious experience of its redness is a measurement that depends on your cognitive frame of reference from another frame, say
a neuroscientist observing your brain, the same phenomenon might just appear as patterns
of neural activity.
Now some questions to ponder are, how does Heidegger's idea of being toward death influence
your understanding of consciousness and its relation to time?
What implications might the tension schema theory have for developing artificial consciousness? How does understanding the boundary problem
change our approach to studying altered states of consciousness? In what ways does Bach's
theory challenge the notion of qualia as traditionally understood? How does Hoffman's theory account
for shared experiences and consensus reality among different
individuals?
Does LeHavre's theory of relativistic consciousness finally bridge the gap between physicalist
and non-physicalist theories of mind?
And that concludes layer three of the consciousness iceberg.
If you found this expedition intriguing, then make sure to subscribe for Layer 4, where
we'll delve into Penrose's theories, we'll also talk about Chris Langan's CTMU or the
Cognitive Theoretic Model of the universe, Immanuel Kant's idea of Transcendental Unity
of Aperception, Hegel's notion of Absolute Spirit, Embodiment or Semantic Practices,
Harmonic Resonance Theory, and also the neutral and
double aspects of monism.
If you'd like to see layer 1 about the basic definitions, the problems in consciousness,
then that link is in the description as well as layer 2 about the hard problem about Buddhism
and about Jung.
See you in the next layer.
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Again, keep in mind, it's support from the sponsors and you that allow me to work on toe full-time. You also get early access to ad-free
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in the case of YouTube. For instance, this episode that you're listening to
right now was released a few days earlier. Every dollar helps far more than
you think. Either way, your viewership is generosity enough. Thank you so much.