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A Blueprint for the Hard Problem of Consciousness

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    Book

  • 251 Pages
  • February 2019
  • Bentham Science Publishers Ltd
  • ID: 4757876

A Blueprint for the Hard Problem of Consciousness addresses the fundamental mechanism that allows physical events to transcend into subjective experiences, termed the Hard Problem of Consciousness. Consciousness is made available as the abstract product of self-referent realization of information by strange loops through the levels of processing of the brain.

Readers are introduced to the concept of the Hard Problem of Consciousness and related concepts followed by a critical discourse of different theories of consciousness. Next, the author identifies the fundamental flaw of the Integrated Information Theory (IIT) and proposes an alternative that avoids the cryptic intelligent design and panpsychism of the IIT. This author also demonstrates how something can be created out of nothing without resorting to quantum theory while pointing out neurobiological alternatives to the bottom-up approach of quantum theories of consciousness.

The book then delves into the philosophy of qualia in different physiological knowledge networks (spatial, temporal and olfactory, cortical signals, for example) to explain an action-based model consistent with the generational principles of Predictive Coding, which maps prediction and predictive-error signals for perceptual representations supporting integrated goal-directed behaviors. Conscious experiences are considered the outcome of abstractions realized out of map overlays and provided by sustained oscillatory activity.

The key feature of this blueprint is that it offers a perspective of the Hard Problem of Consciousness from the point of view of the subject; the experience of ‘being the subject’ is predicted to be the realization of inference inversely mapped out of hidden causes of globally integrated actions. The author explains the consistencies of his blueprint with ideas of the Global Neuronal Workspace and the Adaptive Resonance Theory of consciousness as well as with the empirical evidence supporting the Integrated Information Theory.

A Blueprint for the Hard Problem of Consciousness offers a unique perspective to readers interested in the scientific philosophy and cognitive neuroscience theory in relation to models of the theory of consciousness.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

Section 1. Setting Up The Problem


  • Chapter 1 Introduction
  • Chapter 2 Does It Make Sense To Trace Consciousness To Single-Celled Organisms?
  • Chapter 3 Consciousness: Computable, Noncomputable Or Both?
  • Chapter 4 A Brief Criticism Of Theories

Section 2. Blueprint


  • Chapter 5 Expectation Without A Spectator
  • Chapter 6 Negative Entropy And Inference In Living Organisms
  • Chapter 7 Expectations In A Strange Loop
  • Chapter 8 In Search Of Meaning
  • Chapter 9 Supplanting The Integrated Information Theory

Section 3. In Search Of Qualia In Local Networks


  • Chapter 10 Awareness Of Location
  • Chapter 11 Awareness Of Time
  • Chapter 12 Interoception
  • Chapter 13 Predictive Coding
  • Chapter 14 Cortical Signals Of Consciousness
  • Chapter 15 Olfactory Awareness

Section 4. The Globalization Of Consciousness


  • Chapter 16 Attention, Neuronal Oscillations, And Predictive Coding
  • Chapter 17 The Global Neuronal Workspace Theory And The Adaptive Resonance Theory
  • Chapter 18 Networks Of External And Internal Awareness And The Neurology Of Consciousness

Section 5. The Road Ahead


  • Chapter 19 A Problem Of Records
  • Chapter 20 Final Conclusions

References

Subject Index

Author

  • Paulo Jacomo Negro