31–40 of 46 posts
Reminds me of Julian Jaynes' ideas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicameralism_(psychology) (And if I remember correctly, the original study is referenced in his book)
I would not expect the part of a brain that deals with self-awareness is all-pervading and all-entwined. I would expect that you could disconnect cognition from self-awareness. Apparently we don't even need a self to synchronize emotions ! That is a fantastic find! I also think we can see a huge bias about some of our theories of what human beings are: Many emphasize the self; a self-aware brain can become self-obses…
There is a study that made the rounds back in 2008 where scientists claimed they could prove that people’s brains make decisions about 7-10 seconds before they consciously “decide,” suggesting that cognitive thought is really just rationalizing decisions that our brain already made for us. blah blah free will we’re all turing machines, no but it’s interesting stuff http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080411/full/news.200…
I would argue that most of what we do is automatic, and we are quite good at post-facto rationalizing our decisions.
BUT, I would also argue that consciousness allows us to make fully-conscious decisions, so we are not 100% automatic.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yup, was going to pimp this as well. Absolute banger, and terrifying on a level of the 1978 Alien.
Well then I absolutely must inform you that Peter Watts from a fan fiction version of The Thing from the viewpoint of the alien: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/
The hard SF novel Blindsight , by Peter Watts, is an excellent and extremely interesting exploration of this idea and its ramifications.
Advertisers use what is known as the Low Attention Processing Model.[1] With this particular advertising strategy, brand information, and even an emotional attachment to a brand, can be 'acquired' at low and even zero attention levels using implicit learning.[2] Implicit learning cannot analyse or re-interpret anything. The information goes directly to the subconscious mind. Depending on the message, this can be posi…
Advertisers use what is known as the Low Attention Processing Model.[1] With this particular advertising strategy, brand information, and even an emotional attachment to a brand, can be 'acquired' at low and even zero attention levels using implicit learning.[2] Implicit learning cannot analyse or re-interpret anything. The information goes directly to the subconscious mind. Depending on the message, this can be posi…
They Live. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Live
The hard SF novel Blindsight , by Peter Watts, is an excellent and extremely interesting exploration of this idea and its ramifications.
Edit: Oh wow, not only is Blindsight available online, but all of his short stories are up as well! http://www.rifters.com/real/shorts.htm
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not just this idea, almost every question of consciousness/intelligence/self awareness is approached in some form or another, from different angles. I could go on about it, but I'll just say it's the best SF I've read in a long while.
I love it too. Conscious self-awareness is arguably not very useful. It pretends to be in control, but mostly it's just observing what the mind has already done, and makes up stuff to rationalize it. At best, that's merely superfluous. But at worst, consciousness gets in the way, and generates counterproductive emotional states. But fortunately, ones mind can trick its consciousness into being useful :)
Reminds me of Julian Jaynes' ideas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicameralism_(psychology) (And if I remember correctly, the original study is referenced in his book)
"Just how many of our decisions occur out of our awareness, even when we have the illusion of control? And if the conscious mind is not needed to direct our actions, then what is its purpose? Why did we evolve this vivid internal life, if we are almost “zombies” acting without awareness?" Slow thinking vs fast thinking?
IMO, conscious thought is the result of being a social animal. Keeping up with social relations is simple but when it comes to one-on-one situations you have to drop everything and focus. Such focus has the side effect of allowing us to reflect on ourselves (how we function, why we exist, etc). So, instead of assuming why we're conscious at all, maybe it's better to ask why socializing requires so much focus? Just a…