X-Message-Number: 11045 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: About self-awareness, consciousness, etc Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1999 22:48:14 +1100 (EST) Hi everyone! For those interested in consciousness, self, identity, and closely related concepts: you might be interested in reading an article in the 4 December issue of SCIENCE (282(1998) 1846-1851) which discusses just what brain areas may be involved, either temporarily (depending on just what we are conscious of) or continually. The article is by Gerald W Edelman and Giulio Tononi (who may be the main author). Basically they looked at those brain areas active when we are consciously aware of something, versus the others which aren't. (A little thought will tell you that this is more complex than it sounds). I intend to discuss this article in an upcoming PERIASTRON, and readers of PERIASTRON will know that it's far from the only article on this subject, but SCIENCE is very accessible, unlike some of the other neuroscience periodicals. And besides, it may give some experimental substance to the various notions presently circulating on Cryonet. Awareness is not something that we just talk about, there are now things we can to do see just what happens with it in our brains. The authors, among other things, conclude from their work that it should be possible to make a machine self-aware --- if we really want to do that. (I'm not so sure what we'd gain by doing so, but that's a separate issue. And understanding how our brain produces consciousness == self-awareness is likely to give us that ability, whether or not these particular authors have identified those structures involved in consciousness. Best and long long life, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=11045