Read Online The Ravenous Brain: How the New Science of Consciousness Explains Our Insatiable Search for Meaning by Daniel Bor - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Daniel Bor
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this, we are open to the possibility that we can make significant scientific and technological progress concerning consciousness, then who’s to say that subjectivity will at some point no longer be an inevitable feature of consciousness, but an accidental component, and one that is potentially easily corrected in various ways?
At the end of the day, therefore, even this last remaining philosophical mystery may dissolve. Instead of being a permanent, impenetrable barrier to the scientific exploration of consciousness, subjectivity might only reflect our lack of deep understanding as yet of how our brains process information and our current lack of technological expertise in capturing and manipulating that information.
Ultimately, the philosophical arguments summarized in this chapter claiming to show that consciousness cannot exist in a physical computational brain fail, not only because they neglect the details of how the brain actually functions, but also because they rely on intuitions, even if they at first appear watertight. But while intuitions can be a useful starting point in many topics, they should never be the endpoint. I believe instead that provisional ideas should inspire scientific investigation, where more solid answers lie.
OUR INDOMITABLE SPIRIT
When I was a child, my father read me bizarre, fantastical bedtime stories with vibrant characters, invariably set on alien worlds. One obscure, ailing, tatty book that utterly transfixed me was The Space Willies by the British writer Eric Frank Russell. The subtitle of the book, You Can’t Keep an Earthman Down , aside from capturing the plot of the novel perfectly, completely summarized, to my mind, what makes humanity so potentially incredible. For me, hidden in that one phrase was a surprisingly complex emotion: that of being unblinkingly positive, absolutely goal-focused, totally confident in one’s ingenuity to escape the tightest of traps, and even relishing the chance to exercise that ingenuity.
The novel, admittedly, was somewhat contrived and no doubt was dated even in my childhood, but it’s also so funny—and so well executed—that you hardly notice such failings. It concerns a chronically nonconformist army pilot, Leeming, who crashes a spaceship behind enemy lines. He is soon captured by his lizard-like enemies and interned in a prisoner-of-war camp, where he is the only human. The situation looks bleak for Leeming, but he has one trait that makes him far superior to his jailers: guile. Leeming soon hatches an ingenious, if improbable, plan. He begins to spread a rumor that he, like all Earthmen, has a secret, shadow-like, but ever so powerful and vengeful twin. He jerry-rigs a twisted piece of wire and a shabby wooden block and starts to hint surreptitiously that he can use this ultra-sophisticated device to communicate with his remote twin and call an attack at any time. Not only this, but he suggests that even the main allies of his captors have similar, secret doppelgangers, called “willies,” who could turn nasty in the blink of a reptilian eye. At first his guards are skeptical, but then they start sending out spies, asking humans if their enemies “have the willies.” Obviously the answers are a hearty assent, along with the optimistic conviction that their enemies will only have more willies as the battle continues. Following some beautiful finessing of the situation by Leeming, and fortunately timed catastrophes befalling the prison guards, these rumors slowly grow to such gargantuan proportions that his captors, for their own safety, do all they can to release him and send him back to Earth. Eventually, the whole enemy alliance collapses under the weight of this single rumor.
In a roundabout way, this story taught my younger self that in any apparently insoluble situation, human ingenuity can successfully forge a path through various imposing barriers. The history of the study of consciousness has represented this proud
At the end of the day, therefore, even this last remaining philosophical mystery may dissolve. Instead of being a permanent, impenetrable barrier to the scientific exploration of consciousness, subjectivity might only reflect our lack of deep understanding as yet of how our brains process information and our current lack of technological expertise in capturing and manipulating that information.
Ultimately, the philosophical arguments summarized in this chapter claiming to show that consciousness cannot exist in a physical computational brain fail, not only because they neglect the details of how the brain actually functions, but also because they rely on intuitions, even if they at first appear watertight. But while intuitions can be a useful starting point in many topics, they should never be the endpoint. I believe instead that provisional ideas should inspire scientific investigation, where more solid answers lie.
OUR INDOMITABLE SPIRIT
When I was a child, my father read me bizarre, fantastical bedtime stories with vibrant characters, invariably set on alien worlds. One obscure, ailing, tatty book that utterly transfixed me was The Space Willies by the British writer Eric Frank Russell. The subtitle of the book, You Can’t Keep an Earthman Down , aside from capturing the plot of the novel perfectly, completely summarized, to my mind, what makes humanity so potentially incredible. For me, hidden in that one phrase was a surprisingly complex emotion: that of being unblinkingly positive, absolutely goal-focused, totally confident in one’s ingenuity to escape the tightest of traps, and even relishing the chance to exercise that ingenuity.
The novel, admittedly, was somewhat contrived and no doubt was dated even in my childhood, but it’s also so funny—and so well executed—that you hardly notice such failings. It concerns a chronically nonconformist army pilot, Leeming, who crashes a spaceship behind enemy lines. He is soon captured by his lizard-like enemies and interned in a prisoner-of-war camp, where he is the only human. The situation looks bleak for Leeming, but he has one trait that makes him far superior to his jailers: guile. Leeming soon hatches an ingenious, if improbable, plan. He begins to spread a rumor that he, like all Earthmen, has a secret, shadow-like, but ever so powerful and vengeful twin. He jerry-rigs a twisted piece of wire and a shabby wooden block and starts to hint surreptitiously that he can use this ultra-sophisticated device to communicate with his remote twin and call an attack at any time. Not only this, but he suggests that even the main allies of his captors have similar, secret doppelgangers, called “willies,” who could turn nasty in the blink of a reptilian eye. At first his guards are skeptical, but then they start sending out spies, asking humans if their enemies “have the willies.” Obviously the answers are a hearty assent, along with the optimistic conviction that their enemies will only have more willies as the battle continues. Following some beautiful finessing of the situation by Leeming, and fortunately timed catastrophes befalling the prison guards, these rumors slowly grow to such gargantuan proportions that his captors, for their own safety, do all they can to release him and send him back to Earth. Eventually, the whole enemy alliance collapses under the weight of this single rumor.
In a roundabout way, this story taught my younger self that in any apparently insoluble situation, human ingenuity can successfully forge a path through various imposing barriers. The history of the study of consciousness has represented this proud
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