CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE MACHINE

Abstract. We consider only the relationship of consciousness to physical reality, whether physical reality is interpreted as the brain, artificial intelligence, or the universe as a whole. The difficulties with starting the analysis with physical reality on the one hand and with consciousness on the other are delineated. We consider how one may derive from the other. Concepts of universal or pure consciousness versus local or ego consciousness are explored with the possibility that consciousness may be physically creative. We examine whether artificial intelligence can possess consciousness as an extension of the interrelationship between consciousness and the brain or material reality.     

MAKING SENSE OF GOD: HOW I GOT TO THE BRAIN

Abstract. I describe the development of my work in relating brain research and religion from my personal roots in my family of origin through my professional responsibilities as a pastor, a clinician, and a theological educator to my developing what I call “a neurotheological approach” to faith and ministry. My early correlations gave simplistic attention to bimodal consciousness as an interpretive tool for understanding religion. Subsequently came a more sophisticated exploration of whole-brain functioning and suggested cultural correlates. Currently, I am explicating tae humanizing brain as reflective of our living in an open system, a universe that is unfolding and evolving, a universe in the hands of the whole-making, integrating, emerging God whose reality far exceeds the insights of cultural construction. As we humans relate to this God, attachment and aspiration are reciprocal.     

Nietzsche on conscious and unconscious thought

ABSTRACT

While much recent attention has been directed towards Nietzsche’s reflections on the mind, and on consciousness in particular, his often-suggestive comments about thinking have thus far avoided comparable scrutiny. Starting from Nietzsche’s claims that we ‘think constantly, but [do] not know it’, and that only our conscious thinking ‘takes place in words,’ I draw out the distinct strands that underpin such remarks. The opening half of the paper focuses upon Nietzsche’s understanding of unconscious thinking, and the role of affects therein. In what remains, I consider the difference (for Nietzsche) between conscious and unconscious thought, with a particular focus on two important readings. The first, put forward by Paul Katsafanas, claims that conscious states alone have conceptually-articulated content. The second, defended most prominently by Mattia Riccardi, argues that Nietzsche’s various claims evince a form of HOT (higher-order thought) theory. I argue that neither reading is quite right, and instead propose an alternative interpretation of conscious thinking ‘in words’, which draws on work on inner speech.     

Access,phenomenology and sorites

The non‐transitivity of the relation looks the same as has been used to argue that the relation has the same phenomenal character as is non‐transitive—a result that jeopardizes certain theories of consciousness. In this paper, I argue against this conclusion while granting the premise by dissociating lookings and phenomenology; an idea that some might find counter‐intuitive. However, such an intuition is left unsupported once phenomenology and cognitive access are distinguished from each other; a distinction that is conceptually and empirically grounded.     

Improvisation: The Astonishing Bridge to Our Inner Music

Musical improvisation is the expressive capacity of a performer fostered by access to their own “productive” (creative) or “reproductive” (mnestic) tonal imagery: a field of consciousness that includes experiences, images that are internal, combined, distorted, associated, or in competition between themselves. In the highly original form of life that is jazz, narrating means directing time: a time of epiphanies and introversions, of intuitions and revelations, of syncopated rhythms and aesthetic insights, which appear and disappear on the edges of interference between consciousness and the unconscious. The performing urgency of gestures, voices, and sounds, although arranged in the same scene, highlights the difference in individual time. In this intense activity of opposition and resolution the experience becomes an unstable territory that rests on the capacity of the body to remember, decide, anticipate, and invent. The ego reveals itself to be an emerging representation of our nerve structures and, even if conscious organization continues to be attributed to it, its role is not at all crucial. Unity, if anything, means coordination. The conscious ego is the expression of the body. In its ultimate form its unity is a biological problem.     

“Breaking Her Spirit” Through Objectification,Fragmentation, and Consumption: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Domestic Sex Trafficking

It is now recognized that sex trafficking is an issue present in the United States as victims are frequently children and adults who were born and raised in the United States. Anti-trafficking researchers and advocates state that the problem is one of supply and demand and that trafficking of vulnerable individuals will continue until the demand for commercial sex ceases. One goal of this article is to show how Carol Adams’ model of violence against women is uniquely applicable to the issue of sex trafficking. In particular, this article outlines the ways in which objectification, fragmentation, and consumption allow commercial sexual exploitation through sex trafficking to continue. The article also explores links between pornography and sex trafficking as well as the processes traffickers use to groom individuals for exploitation through prostitution in a manner that helps to ensure compliance. Finally, the article seeks to implore clinicians to increase their understanding of the issues unique to sex trafficking survivors and take an integrative theoretical approach when working with trafficked individuals.     

Extended family constellations workshop efficacy on intuition measure and experience

This study explored the efficacy of an intuition-oriented family constellations process workshop in influencing intuition and consciousness of extended family constellations. Participants were eight white South Africans (male = 1, female = 7; age range = 36 to 62 years). They took a pre-test and post-test measure on their intuition gains from the family constellations process in addition to responding to semi-structured questions on their perceptions and experiences of intuition and ancestral connections. Results suggest the participants experienced gains in intuition and experienced some, variable, form of ancestral connection. Intuition was described as a holistic, inspirational, bodily experience, flowing from an unknown or indeterminate source. Additionally, ancestral connection was experienced bodily and as a felt sense of energy. Results suggest the participants to have experienced gains in intuition and some level of ancestral connection.     

探析流行病防治的哲学思维

本文以现代医学模式为指导,阐述了辩证思维在流行病学研究领域的应用及其必要性。从系统论和具体问题具体分析论述了传染病和慢性病并重和区别对待的疾控观;通过消除病因和医防一体化以控制流行病。最后得出与哲学思维协调发展是流行病防治基本策略的结论。     

论《管子》的“谨慎”思想及其对现代的启迪

《管子》中多次论述了＂谨慎＂,告诫人们：＂昔者圣王本厚民生,审知祸福之所生,是故慎小事微,违非索辩以根之＂;＂君之所慎者四：一曰大德不至仁,不可以授国柄。二曰见贤不能让,不可与尊位。三曰罚避亲贵,不可使主兵。四曰不好本事,不务地利而轻赋敛,不可与都邑＂;＂欲民之谨小礼、行小义、修小廉、饬小耻、禁微邪,此厉民之道也。民之谨小礼、行小义、修小廉、饬小耻、禁微邪,治之本也＂,其思想对现代有启迪和现实意义。     

Artificial consciousness, artificial emotions, and autonomous robots

Nowadays for robots, the notion of behavior is reduced to a simple factual concept at the level of the movements. On another hand, consciousness is a very cultural concept, founding the main property of human beings, according to themselves. We propose to develop a computable transposition of the consciousness concepts into artificial brains, able to express emotions and consciousness facts. The production of such artificial brains allows the intentional and really adaptive behavior for the autonomous robots. Such a system managing the robot’s behavior will be made of two parts: the first one computes and generates, in a constructivist manner, a representation for the robot moving in its environment, and using symbols and concepts. The other part achieves the representation of the previous one using morphologies in a dynamic geometrical way. The robot’s body will be seen for itself as the morphologic apprehension of its material substrata. The model goes strictly by the notion of massive multi-agent’s organizations with a morphologic control.