Topics covered

compete

Weak AI

Weak AI

simulates mind (thinking and decisions), not human mind/conscious

• GOFAI

GOFAI

rule-based, logics, symbolic AI

• weak AI

Stong AI

aim is to construct conscious machine

• human mind-like

attention, memory, arousal, time perception

changes in consciousness during ASCs

sleep, coma, minimally conscious state

states of reduced consciousness

self-recognition, other minds, imitation, language

Blackmore’s requirements for consciousness in animals

dimension and focus

two dimensions of attention

dimension (attention)

inwards vs outwards attentionf

focus (attention)

broad vs narrow focus

attentional blink paradigm

studies the availability of attention across time

self-recognition, other minds, imitation, language

behavioural criteria for inferring consciousness

binding problem

how different features of objects are brought together to make single object/experience

binocular rivalry

two dissimilar images are presented simultaneously to each eye, and perception alternates between them

bistable perception

visual stimuli allow for 2 different perceptions (top-down and bottom-up modulating processes)

blindsight

responding to visual stimuli without consciously perceiving it

• cortical blindness

• action without perception

bundle theories

bundle of sensory experience that evolve over time

• nothing stable

Hume, Buddhism, Hofstadter

examples of bundle theorists

cartesian theatre

D: when something ‘enters consciousness’ this is created

change blindness

saccadic-nature of vision

• don’t have stable view of the world, so integration of successive views isn’t important

chinese room argument

computer executing a program cannot have a mind/understanding/consciousness like a human being, regardless of how intelligent and human mind-like the program is

covert attention

without eye movement attention

overt attention

with eye movement attention

reality discrimination

public reality is independent from our thoughts

• mental images are easy to discriminate from perception

perceptual release theory

memories and internally generated images are usually inhibited by sense and released when input is disrupted

• man looking out window at sunset and fire in the bg

auditory, bodily sensations, visual, phantosmia

common hallucinations

drugs, physical illness, starvation, sleep deprivation, rituals

hallucinations can occur in disorders (dementia, schizophrenia, BP, depression, epilepsy) but also during:

property dualism

1 physical substance that can always be described using mental and physical terms

• dual aspect theory

substance dualism

2 substances: mind and matter

• physcial events must lead to mental experiences

• mental experiences must change physical world

  • Descartes

easy problem

how does brain process stimuli and integrate them

eliminative materialism

no qualia or hard problem since they are too “fuzzy” and make problem more complex

• brain is all that matters

embodied cognition

makes our own and others' minds just as observable as any other feature of the world

• phenomenological analysis = mind-body prob is illusory

embodied, enactive, embedded, extended

4E cognition

epiphenomenalism

physical events give rise to mental events but those don’t affect physical events

Lamarck’s evolution

directional and progressive

Darwin’s evolution

no direction and no guarantee of progress

Nagel

being is conscious just if there is ‘something that it is like’ to be that creature

great chain of being

simplest organism at the bottom and most intelligent at the top

explanatory gap

how physical properties give rise to the way things feel subjectively when they are experienced

extrasensory perception

communication without sense: clairvoyance, telekinesis, precognition

feeling of presence phenomenon

feel that someone or some entity is near you, sometimes accompanied by an actual hallucination of some form.

• sleep paralysis

  • neurological conditions

functionalism

mental states identified by functional rule. attribute states to things that have functions like computers

• type of monism

hard problem

how physical processes in the brain give rise to subjective experiences

activation, information source, mode

hobson’s AIM model of sleep

idealism

consciousness (mental stuff) is the ultimate source of reality

GWT

continuous consciousness

• in GW? = conscious

• cartesian theatre resembles GW

connectionism

biologically inspired, lesion tolerant, capable of generalisation

• parallel processing

mescaline induced hallucinations

cobwebs, tunnels, funnels,cones, spirals, gratings, latices

complex visual hallucinations

cartoon-like characters, scenes from CH memory, animals/mythical creatures, fantastic cities, beautiful scenery

hallucination reality monitoring

distinction between reality and imagination isn’t needed in hallucinations because they are based on what systems already know

predictive-processing

self = brain’s inference to explain incoming sensory info (interoceptive and exteroceptive)

• helps understand hallucinations

• processing failure → hallucination

mescaline, psilocybin, DMT, ayahuasca, LSD

major psychedelics

opens valve and makes world seem fantastic and colourful

mescaline intake

self is disintegrating and merging with world, mind-expanding effects

psilocybin intake

• decreases cerebral blood flow (thalamus and cingulate cortex)

vivid visual, auditory hallucinations, bodily distortions, out-of-body experiences

DMT intake

• tea (with MAO enzyme), smoking

powerful vomiting followed by bodily sensations, transformations, visions, contemplation of death

ayahuasca intake

binds to serotonin, dopamine, adrenaline receptors

LSD chemical structure related to serotonin structure and …

• T for depression

bundle of different perceptions in flux

Hume’s concept of self

• “i can never catch myself” (no experiencer)

memory

according to Huma what give;s our sensations, impressions and ideas the feeling of continuity

• also is the source of personal identity

hypnosis

ignoring world around you and concentrating on suggested fantasies

• ASC

identity theory

mind and matter (identical) are actually different expressions of a single material reality

• “entire brain is sufficient for consciousness”

inattentional blindness

failing to perceive unexpected stimulus in plain sight, as result of lack of attention (not, vision defects/deficits)

• gorilla basket ball video

integrated info theory

consciousness is the capacity of system to integrate information

→ not all or nothing

→ consc increases and decreases with integration of info

→ (panpsychism)

• intrinsic existence

• composition

• information

• exclusion

• integration

intelligence without representation

reliance on representations dissapear when intelligence relies on interacting with world through perception and action

• Brook’s robots

interactionism

mind and body can causally affect each other

• still different entities (dualist)

Libet’s experiment

conscious will plays no causal role in initiation of motor act

0.5s delay

minimum intensity of continuous neural activity necessary for conscious sensation

materialism and functionalism (Dennett)

mary would NOT be surprised as knowing all physical facts tell you everything needed to know

existence of quali (Jackson, Chalmers)

mary would be surprised, consciousness is additional to knowledge of physical world

visual masking

can lead to decreases of brain activity in visual system

• used to study NCCs

regulate attention

goal of zen meditation

8 jhanas

4 in the body and 4 are immaterial states

d-ASC

discrete state of brain networks

• if jhanas are naturally occuring sequence of brain states

truth of suffering, truth of cause of suffering, truth of end of suffering, truth of path that leads to end of suffering

4 noble truths

memetics

development of culture through imitation of things

• culture is encoded as memes to be easily imitated

mereological fallacy

attribution of psychological function that can be applied to a human being as a whole to (parts of) the brain

self-awareness level

mirror self-recognition test/mark test goal

monism

functionalism, panpsychism, phenomenology, radical empiricism, physicalism, idealism, mysterianism, neutral monism

panpsychism

all material things have awareness/mental properties

phenomenology

inquiry into immediate conscious experience

• study of phenomena

radical empiricism

(James) consciousness doesn’t consists of mind and body, only pure existence

physicalism

conscious states are identical to physical stuff

mysterianism

physcial understanding of consciousness lies beyond our understanding

neutral monism

(James) one type of stuff that is neutral (not mental or physical)

near-death experience

out-of-body, tunnel experience, powerful light, life review, positive emotions

• much more intense than psychedlics

neglect

lack of response to stimuli in 1 half of visual field

• not explained by damage to visual pathways

NCC

smallest set of neural events/structures sufficient for conscious perception

• aspect of neural functioning correlated with conscious experience

neurophenomenology

addresses hard problem in pragmatic way.

• studies experience, mind, consciousness

• emphasis on embodied mind

out-of-body experience

dualist thinking is natural

• C leaves body (dualism)

• C stays in body but ESP (avoids dualism)

  • Reliving birth trauma (psychoanalyst)

autoscopy

seeing your double but viewpoint is still from own body

heautoscopy

seeing your double but not sure where you are located

OBE

seeing your double but viewpoint is from your double (birds eye view position)

phantom pain

experiencing pain in a limb that no longer exists on body

zombies possible (Chalmers)

consciousness is different from physical body

• consciousness inessentialism

zombies not possible (Moody)

need a non-physical mind and physical body

• dualism

zimbo (Dennette)

can monitor its activities in indefinite upward spiral of reflexivity

• still unconscious internal states

psi phenomena

group of parapsychological functions of the mind: extrasensory perception, precognition, and psychokinesis

psychokinesis

hypothetical psychic ability allowing a person to influence a physical system without physical interaction.

qualia

private conscious experience of sensation and perception

• building blocks of sensory experiences

problem of consciousness

how qualia relate to physical world

• how objective brains and bodies produce subjective qualia

reductionism

consciousness can be broken down and explained in terms of simpler things.