At various times while reading Anil Seth's engaging and accessible Being You, I was reminded of the people in Helen Thomson's Unthinkable, the subject of a previous blog post. Thomson was documenting the distinct experiences of people whose perception of themselves and/or the world around them depart substantially from what is typical: people who think they are tigers or dead or who can have their orientation to the world flipped instantaneously. Seth is giving an account more generally of why perception works the way … [Read more...] about Science Book Review: Being You – A New Science of Consciousness
consciousness
Science Corner: We Can Remember It for You Wholesnail
"You'll never understand because you weren't there." One frequently hears that sentiment in one form or another, ironically reminding us that at least some experiences are universal. Our constant connection to what others are doing breeds FoMO, or the fear of missing out. Of course, no one has the time to do everything. But what if you could have the memories of being there without the bother of actually having to be there? … [Read more...] about Science Corner: We Can Remember It for You Wholesnail
Science Corner: Who’s Wearing You?
Scientists are reasonably confident that they can describe and study and explain the biological stuff you're walking around in. The you part--the self that feels like it inhabits or animates that body and looks out at the world from it--that part is where things get a lot trickier. There were a couple of items circulating this week on the topic of self: an editorial on whether self is an illusion, and a discussion of the proposal that consciousness is a state of matter (named perceptronium, presumably by James Cameron). … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Who’s Wearing You?
Random Notes on Doctor Bot Ed: Part II
Picking up from Random Notes on Doctor Bot Ed (5/10/2012) . . . Back to Robots!! Personally, despite my earlier remonstration, I would be quite happy to learn all sorts of subjects from a robot. A robot is not going to rob us of our humanity and despoil our personhood – after all, we have less to fear from machines ‘wanting' to behave like humans, as much as humans wanting to behave like machines (Hence, my prefatory diatribe against the social engineering of technocrats and their worrisome bedfellows in academic … [Read more...] about Random Notes on Doctor Bot Ed: Part II