What, Why & How do we Know ?
No, he does not say that “Consciousness is an Illusion”. End of. In a sentence: Dennett’s position is that: Consciousness and conscious will are as real and evolved as anything else in the world. The powerful (useful, but misleading) ILLUSION is the Cartesian theatre / video screen with the homunculus viewer / user as things … Continue reading “Is Dennett an Illusionist?”
Mentioned in a recent “systems sciences” post being recommended to read Peter Corning’s “Nature’s Magic”. Well I’ve had it a couple of days now and like what I read. As a result of the original “see inside” skim I’d already discovered that Corning’s idea of nature’s magic is SYNERGY, essentially that the whole is more … Continue reading “Synergy – Nature’s Magic?”
Still working my way slowly through Mark Solms Hidden Spring, and barely half-way through, in Chapter 6 we have the seat, source or well-spring of consciousness, signified by his title. (We really need one good anatomical brain map on which to project so many different writers’ resources – I mentioned before – every one published … Continue reading “The Mid-Brain Decision Triangle”
I’ve captured the poetry of a number of important late 20th C song lyrics over the years, just to have a searchable record of them here. Roy Harper, Tommy Womack, Graham Parker, Tom Petty, Nick Lowe, Eric Boyle, Elvis Costello, Peter Gabriel, to name a few. It’s only in the last decade or so I … Continue reading “The Secret Chord”
Busy, Busy, Busy. Mentioned strange times regarding work-load and productivity a few posts ago; my pipeline stuffed with unread bookmarks and unresolved references, and a to-do-list with at least seven dimensions of priorities to juggle, personally and professionally. Not exactly “treading water”, but difficult to discern progress going anywhere. Ironic that the immediately previous Wittgensteinian … Continue reading “A remarkable book. It changes everything.”
Preamble This is probably as close as I’ll get to an actual review of Tim Bollands “Life the Universe and Consciousness”. I’ve made significant comments and references here three times already: Problems, Problems — Life, the Universe and Consciousness Life the Universe and Consciousness #2 Life, the Universe and Nothing New Under the Sun? And … Continue reading “The Review at the End of the Universe”
Happy New Year everyone, just the one resolution here. Not posted since November and not read much either. Kinda(*) stalled I guess. Work got serious in a shift from planning & requirements gathering to funding & implementation, so I’m distracted by the day-job – in a good way, for all the right reasons – and … Continue reading “Reading (& Writing) Catch-Up Jan 2020”
A Russian Take on Political Leadership In the heat of Trump’s Putin-Helsinki summit fall-out, I posted this cartoon from Twitter to Facebook: (Hat tip @NickBryantNY for tweeting it. A Brit journalist living in US.) I posted it bare, without comment, letting the cartoon speak for itself. A picture paints a thousand words, but ~998 of them … Continue reading “A Useful Idiot Isn’t All Bad But He Ain’t Good”