From the MIND REVIEW NEWSLETTER

CONSCIOUSNESS
Man & Machine?
By Eldon Taylor

A popular idea now-a-days is the notion of the ghost in the
machine.  From scientific articles to entertainment, this
reference is to the idea of consciousness.  Once again, the study
of consciousness is occupying the minds of science and science
fiction.

Just after the turn of the century, science basically abandoned
the study of consciousness per se' on the grounds that it was too
ambiguous and non-quantifiable.  However, the development of
artificial intelligence, so-called thinking computers,
interactive virtual reality environments and non-local action, or
action at a distance, has placed the study of consciousness in
the fore front of many minds.

What is consciousness?  This issue is devoted to some of the
intrigue involved in efforts to create "thinking machines"
modeled after man, minus of course, his limitations.


EARLY TALK

Language is often thought to be the tool of consciousness and
evidence for the kind of consciousness that makes man different
from monkeys.  Indeed, language has often been referred to as the
"jewel of cognition."  Some scientists have argued that
Neanderthal man possessed advanced talking ability.  This
assertion is largely based upon a neck bone found in 1988 (SN:
4/24/93, p.262).  Other scientists argue for a more recent origin
to speech.  Recent in this sense is between 50 and 100 thousand
years ago. By contrast, early origin theorists date the beginning
of language at over 2 million years ago.

The evolution and history of language has a bearing on certain
philosophical issues where consciousness is concerned.  For
example, take any date for the first appearance of language.
Let's for fun just assume some hairy bi-pedal creature that has
never spoken.  Is this creature conscious?  Conscious in the
sense of man?  Now one day the creature utters some meaningful
form of speech.  Not a grunt or guttural sound like all animals,
but some form, beginning, of speech.  Is the animal now
conscious?

What is the difference between the consciousness of animals and
man?  What is intended by distinguishing between the two
conscious forms as different and why?  If a primate species shows
the ability to learn, remember and associate learnings, some
insist this is evidence for reason.  Most flatly refuse to
recognize it as such.  Is it possible that by recognizing the
field of consciousness as one worthy and ripe for study, that
mans' consciousness will lose its unique elevated status?  What
precisely is it that one means by consciousness anyway?

Certainly reason preceded language.  It would be rather odd if it
were the other way around.  Still, that's an interesting thought.
Some seem to reason only with the tools of their language.  In
other words, their reason is limited by the rules and definitions
of their language.  Plus, there is some argument in favor of
certain language structure as having greater or lesser faculties
for developing logical thinking.  Literal languages, for example,
such as German, tend to encourage the development of logical
thinkers.  However intriguing all this may be, it still stands to
reason that reason preceded the conceptualization and development
of speech.  As such, one is hard pressed to limit the
consciousness of a species on the basis of sound patterns called
speech.

Oh, and it gets still tougher.  For there are sound patterns that
resemble speech uttered by so-called non-conscious animals such
as whales and dolphins.  So, what is consciousness?

Is consciousness a matter of wakefulness?  No, it can't be just
that for one can be a conscious being and still be asleep.  Is
consciousness memory?  Well, according to the experiments of
Cleve Baxter, plants exhibit memory.  Where science abandoned the
study of consciousness years ago, the problems inherent to
describing consciousness have proliferated during the absence.
The advent of animal studies, plant studies and synthetic or
artificial intelligence have greatly complicated the matters of
consciousness.  Or perhaps, in the alternative, simplified them.


LANGUAGE AND THE BRAIN

For most people, parts of the left brain handle the affairs of
language.  Brain hemispheric studies including the now popular
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans show that the right ear
sends acoustic information to the left hemisphere.  Well,
according to Marc Hauser of Harvard University and Karin
Andersson of Radcliff College in Cambridge, rhesus monkeys
"display a similar cerebral setup, with the left half of the
brain often taking responsibility for vocalizations intended to
signal aggression" (SN: 5/21/94, p333).  If this is true, does
this mean that the anatomical evidence for language processing is
evidence for consciousness in the sense that we normally think of
mankind's consciousness.  If not, what are the differences?


CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE BRAIN

For many, mind equals brain.  Mind is a more general terms that
refers to the processes handled by brain.  Therefore, mind is
often an interchangeable term with consciousness.  Is mind equal
to brain?  The chief area of enquiry offering evidence one way or
another to this question is a discipline often held in poor
regard.  Still, literally thousands of laboratory experiments in
scientific parapsychology demonstrate that there are many aspects
of mind that can not be reduced to anatomical or material brain.

For example, data clearly supports the "reality" of telepathy,
clairvoyance and psychokinesis.  This seems obvious to this
commentator, but then the biographies of some of the world's most
respected people provide a richer picture than that found in
science.  However, the point is simple.  Whether it is from the
genius of Einstein or the laboratory of a modern
parapsychologist, mind is not equal to brain!  What does this
mean with respect to consciousness?

A wonderful Star Trek adventure that I can remember had the
Enterprise actually forming its own consciousness and then
creating a new life form.  Somehow, as Mr. Data explained, the
activity of the starship's computers and records began to take on
a "more than the sum of the parts" activity, form its own neural
network and so forth.  Will machines ever become conscious?


SIMULATED CREATURES EVOLVE AND LEARN

This was the headline in a recent Science News publication:
Simulated Creatures Evolve and Learn.  The article by Richard
Lipkin went on to cite the work of Karl Sims of Thinking Machines
in Cambridge, Mass., who "devised a simulated evolutionary system
in which virtual creatures compete for resources in a three-
dimensional arena...The creatures, resembling toy-block robots,
enter one-on-one contests in which they vie for control of a
desired object---an extra cube.  Winners---deemed more fit---
reproduce, while losers bear no offspring.  Sims endows the
virtual environment with physical parameters, such as gravity and
friction, and restricts behaviors to plausible physical actions"
(SN: 7/23/94, p63).  Sims believes that it may be easier to
evolve virtual entities with intelligent behavior than to create
them from scratch.

Artificial intelligence researchers have long sought to develop
the so-called thinking machine.  Unlike Sims, most begin by
attempting to model the computer after the patterns of man.  For
some, this is the neural model of the brain while for others it
is the deductive/inductive model of reason.  Perhaps Sims' method
is more man-like than the other two.  Mankind is thought to have
evolved.  Does this help us understand consciousness?  Oh, and
what about the collective of consciousness?  Will machines soon
be contributing to this field of consciousness?  Will a machine
ever dream?


DREAMS, INTUITION & CONSCIOUSNESS

The "Genius Hypothesis" advanced by Ervin Laszlo and reported in
the Journal of Scientific Exploration (Vol.8, No.2, pp257-267,
1994), asserts that the minds "of unusually creative people are
in spontaneous, direct, though usually not conscious, interaction
with other minds in the creative process itself."  Laszlo's paper
sheds light on the "archetypal experience" described by Carl Jung
while using history, physics, psychology, artistic production and
cultural development to clearly suggest the strong possibility
(in this commentators opinion, the only real possibility) that
not only do minds communicate, but they do so at a distance as
well!

Is the collective, or the shared consciousness experience, an
independent consciousness?  Is it possible that unique
(individual) conscious entities participate as transceivers,
sending and receiving, and that the total of consciousness is
this collective?  Does the collective have a plan, a will, does
it dream?  Or is it just a repository?  Does it have a neural
network or some analogous something that we might refer to as a
non-spatial field?  I mean, its not organic or silicone is it?


CONSCIOUS OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Perhaps consciousness is something that has to do with being
conscious of consciousness.  I mean, are monkeys truly conscious
of being conscious?  Could they even entertain the idea of
consciousness without an object?  Or consciousness as a character
in someone else's dream?  Does a monkey ask itself if it really
exists?

Is that a fair direction to take our questions regarding
consciousness?  After all, are we not likely to be forced to
admit the notion of "devolution" if we do?  Are there not all
together too many homo sapien sapiens on the planet that don't
give the proverbial "hoot" about who they are or where they came
from.  How many of these people ask the question, "Do I really
exist?"

Will silicone ask the question, "Who am I?"  If the Japanese have
their way, the answer is---probably!  A "Darwin Machine" is being
created by researchers at ATR laboratories in Kyoto, Japan.  The
artificial brain which uses an evolving neural network is due to
be completed by 2001.  Hugo de Garis, an ATR scientist, says the
purpose is to produce a silicone brain with more than 1 billion
artificial neurons.

Science News says the machine "will come in the form of a neural
network and will exist within a massively parallel computer.  To
create such a complex system, the researchers will have the
network build itself.  'Cellular automata,' each one a distinct
computer program, will actually forge their own linkages."

This approach, called "evolutionary engineering," provides for
the growth of the silicone brain via connections.  "The neural
net grows when cellular automata send 'growth signals' to each
other, then connect via synapses."

(And you thought genetic engineering was something to wonder
about).


CONSCIOUSNESS WITHOUT A DEFINITION

Defining consciousness turns out to be a process somewhat a-kin
to searching for the core of an onion.  As we enter the new year,
and perhaps entertain thoughts of the upcoming turn of the
century, revisiting consciousness is more than a philosophical
exercise or a scientific enquiry.  It is a duty, even a moral
imperative, to re-evaluate the nature of consciousness for this
inherently devises the strategy by which mankind treats itself
and all life.  For me, and I suspect for many others, many
changes are seen as necessary for the human race to actualize the
highest of its potentials.  As in history, most certainly some of
these changes will be brought about by difficult times.  I am
reminded of something Martin Luther King said, "I can never be
what I ought to be, until you are what you ought to be."  King
went on to point out that it was precisely the inter-related
fabric of life that each of us was interdependent upon.
Perhaps, it is the inter-related nature of all life,
consciousness itself, that we are interdependent upon.  Perhaps,
just perhaps, mankind will only know his highest most noble self
when he offers the deepest of respect for all life.  Perhaps the
invigorated enthusiasm searching for a firm hold on this stuff
called consciousness will eventually give rise to the respect I
speak of.  Thank you & BE WELL & HAPPY!

                              Eldon

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