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2024 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

5. On Consciousness: The Evolving Mind

Author : Stefan Brunnhuber

Published in: The Third Culture

Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland

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Abstract

This chapter introduces eight essential components of consciousness. It argues that humans are able to create forms of consciousness that are not based on biochemical signals or electromagnetic waves, and that will one day be able to surpass the human capacities that gave rise to those new forms of consciousness in the first place. The differences between ‘science’ and ‘sapientia’ (wisdom) are described, and two different forms of learning are introduced: representational-symbolic, where we become aware that an object or event is not in the outer world and instead examine our mental representation of it; and connectivist, where we realise that knowledge is generated within a network.

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This also corresponds to more collective forms of consciousness, e.g. those that are archaic, magical, mythical, logico-analytical or mystical. See Wilber (1997).

The distinction between form and content was drawn all the way back in Plato’s time. See Plato (1995).

See the debate with Chalmers in Metzinger (2000) about the minimum necessary neural correlate.

Consciousness is not the same as the self. The self can be divided into five different subtypes: 1. The ecological self, which is defined by an individual’s location in space, their body schema and the differentiation between self and environment; 2. The interpersonal self, which involves differentiation from others and a capacity for role-taking, empathy, humour, irony, emotional granularity and metacognition; 3. The intertemporal self, which relates to the timeline of past, present and future, cyclical processes and the development of a historical consciousness; 4. The conceptual self, defined by a person’s intrinsic motives, intentions and values; 5. The private self, which relates to a person’s inner subjective world that is not necessarily shared with others. The combination of these five components constitutes the self as an emergent structure; see Neisser (1988).

In this strict sense, our behaviour is determined and not free. This means that the perception of free choice is still determined by the specific hardware that enables that free choice. See Singer (2009).

Metzinger (2006).

It was only in the sixteenth century that probability measures became available to most people as an aid for their day-to-day decision-making.

Serota et al. (2022).

This ‘wandering mind’ state allows us to be aware but not focused. These sorts of altered mental states have the selection advantage of increased creativity and out-of-the-box thinking; they save energy; and they improve memory and self-regulation.

Jung (1968).

Any definition of, or working hypothesis about, consciousness will always remain anthropomorphic in the sense that, as humans, we cannot attain an understanding that transcends us. Whether we favour dualism (mind versus matter), panpsychism (every living being has some sort of consciousness or mental qualia) or a theory of emergence (spirit or mind evolves non-linearly from matter), in each case our understanding will remain human-like. This is also called the Eliza effect: if computers or animals respond like humans, we assume they are human. See Weizenbaum (1966).

These embodied cognitions create ‘frames’ and ‘biases’, which can be misleading and feed back into our ways of thinking. Before long, it will be possible to build robots with multiple sensors capable of perceiving the outside world—not only simulating but exceeding human senses, and extending into new sensory modalities. These robots will develop their own reasoning that is (at least) equal to humans’ ‘embodied cognitions’. See Chalmers (2022). Any consciousness constructs the world and never simply neutrally reflects it. For the historical debate about constructivism, see Watzlawick (1984), Maturana and Varela (1987).

It is still indeterminate whether these functions operate on a pre-personal/collective, personal/egocentric or transpersonal form of consciousness. On any of these alternatives, the eight components described here are relevant to the formation of consciousness.

The famous biologist Ernst Mayr is quoted as saying that ‘biology is never a second physics’. His words stress the emergent property of living beings. We could add that psychology is never a second biology and that the new technology emerging now is not a second psychology. On Mayr’s argument, see also Bauer (2023).

We might therefore need to distinguish between mind, consciousness, self and thinking. See Aurobindo (1997).

Jaspers (1949).

Aurobindo (1997).

Wilber (1995, 1998).

Especially in cases where science is able to overcome oppositions and contradictions and formulate complementary pairs. See Heisenberg (1973), Weizsäcker (2006).

One prominent suggestion for how to integrate the two cultures can be found in debates about value: if we had more shared values (e.g. responsibility, fairness, trust and respect), so the argument goes, we could make progress towards a better world. This is true; however, the values of fairness, solidarity and justice have been around for 5,000 years, are shared by the vast majority of humans on this planet and do not necessarily provide new information or knowledge. The ‘third culture’ or ‘one science’ argument presented here does not deny the relevance of shared attitudes and values, but emphasises that even if we share common values, the ‘two cultures’ do not integrate, as the humanities are concerned with values, which are normative, and science with facts, which are descriptive. In order to integrate the two, we require a third culture. AI and datafication can play this role and help move us past the academic debate about value and towards wisdom, which integrates lived experience.

This relates to the ‘fluency effect’: the more easily information can be accessed and processed, the more likely we are to think that information is accurate. But that assumption is wrong. See Lloyd et al. (2003).

Downes (2008), Siemens (2006).

Surowiecki (2004) lists five criteria for ‘the wisdom of crowds’: diversity of opinion, independence, decentralisation, aggregation of knowledge and trust. If AI programmers take this wisdom into account, humans will have a reasonable chance of being able to tap into a collective wisdom of this kind.

Income and wealth inequality, landfill waste, food waste, water and energy consumption and ecosystem degradation are examples. We all share common values and agree that we should avoid all these disasters, but we are unable to do so. AI, datafication and deep learning are one tool to transform values into wisdom. Predictive coding, precise farming and drones are specific examples of how this tool can be applied. For more examples, see further in the text.

Aurobindo S (1997) Primary works, vol 12. Lotus Press, Twin Lakes

Bauer J (2023) Realitätsverlust: Wie KI und virtuelle Welten von uns Besitz ergreifen—und die Menschlichkeit bedrohen. Heyne, Munich

Chalmers DJ (2022) Reality+: virtual worlds and the problems of philosophy. W. W. Norton, New York

Downes S (2008) An introduction to connective knowledge. In: Hug T (ed) Media, knowledge & education: exploring new spaces, relations and dynamics in digital media ecologies. Innsbruck University Press, Innsbruck, pp 77–102

Heisenberg W (1973) Naturwissenschaftliche und religiöse Wahrheit: Rede zur Verleihung des Romano-Guardini-Preises. Physikalische Blätter 29(8):339–349CrossRef

Jaspers K (1949) Vom Ursprung und Ziel der Geschichte. Piper, Munich

Jung CG (1968) Der Mensch und seine Symbole. Walter, Olten

Lloyd ME, Westerman DL, Miller JK (2003) The fluency heuristic in recognition memory: the effect of repetition. J Mem Lang 48(3):603–614CrossRef

Maturana HR, Varela FJ (1987) The tree of knowledge: the biological roots of human understanding. Shambhala, Boston

Metzinger T (ed) (2000) Neural correlates of consciousness: empirical and conceptual questions. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

Metzinger T (2006) Conscious volition and mental representation: towards a more fine-grained analysis. In: Sebanz N, Prinz W (eds) Disorders of volition. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp 19–48CrossRef

Neisser U (1988) Five kinds of self-knowledge. Philos Psychol 1(1):35–59CrossRef

Plato (1995) Platonis opera. Oxford University Press, Oxford

Serota KB, Levine TR, Docan-Morgan T (2022) Unpacking variation in lie prevalence: prolific liars, bad lie days, or both? Commun Monogr 89(3):307–331CrossRef

Siemens G (2006) Connectivism: a learning theory for the digital age. Int J Instruct Technol Distance Learn 2:1–9

Singer W (2009) Der Beobachter im Gehirn: Essays zur Hirnforschung. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt

Surowiecki J (2004) The wisdom of crowds: why the many are smarter than the few and how collective wisdom shapes business, economies, societies and nations. Anchor Books, New York

Watzlawick P (1984) The invented reality: how do we know what we believe we know? W. W. Norton, New York

Weizenbaum J (1966) ELIZA—a computer program for the study of natural language communication between man and machine. Commun ACM 9(1):36–45CrossRef

Weizsäcker KF (2006) Die Geschichte der Natur: Zwölf Vorlesungen (gehalten in Göttingen 1946). Hirzel, Stuttgart

Wilber K (1995) Sex, ecology, spirituality: the spirit of evolution. Shambhala, Boston

Wilber K (1997) An integral theory of consciousness. J Conscious Stud 4(1):71–92

Wilber K (1998) The marriage of sense and soul: integrating science and religion. Random House, New York

Title: On Consciousness: The Evolving Mind
Author: Stefan Brunnhuber
Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland
Book: The Third Culture
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-48112-3

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-031-48113-0

Copyright Year: 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48113-0_5

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