Consciousness

Rodrick Wallace

ISBN 10: 0387252428 / ISBN 13: 9780387252421

Published by Springer US Apr 2005, 2005

About this Item

This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book makes formal, detailed, application of what Adams has described as 'the informational turn in philosophy' to the global neuronal workspace (GNW) model of consciousness. It uses an extended statistical model of cognitive process, based on the Shannon-McMillan Theorem and its corollaries, to incorporate the effects of embedding physiological, social, and cultural contextual constraints which operate more slowly than the workspace itself, but severely limit the possible realms available to that workspace, and hence to consciousness itself. The resulting 'biopsychosociocultural' treatment directly addresses criticisms of brain-only models of consciousness which have been raised in cultural psychology and philosophy, while remaining true to the current neuroscience perspective.This is the first formal, comprehensive, and reasonably rigorous, mathematical treatment of the GNW and is the only one to include the effects of embedding contexts in a 'natural' manner. 132 pp. Englisch.

Seller Inventory # 9780387252421

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Consciousness
• Publisher: Springer US Apr 2005
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0387252428
• ISBN 13: 9780387252421
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 241W x 160H x 12D millimeters 241 millimeters width by 160 millimeters height by 12 millimeters depth
• Weight: 371 grams

About this title

Synopsis

This book is not an intellectual history or popular summary of recent work on consciousness in humans. Bernard Baars (1988), Edelman and Tononi (2000), and many others, have written such, and done it well indeed. This book, rather, brings the powerful analytic machinery of communication theory to bear on the Global Neuronal Workspace (GNW) model of consciousness which Baars introduced, and does so in a formal mathematical manner. It is not the first such attempt. The philospher Fred Dretske (1981), indep- dent of Baars, long ago outlined how information theory might illuminate the understanding of mind. Adapting his approach on the necessary conditions for mental process, we apply a previously-developed information theory analysis of interacting cognitive biological and social modules to Baars' GNW, which has become the principal candidate for a 'standard model' of consciousness. Invoking an obvious canonical homology with statistical physics, the method, when iterated in the spirit of the Hierarchical Linear Model of regression theory, generates a fluctuating dynamic threshold for consciousness which is similar to a tunable phase transition in a physical system. The phenomenon is, however, constrained to a manifold/atlas structure analogous to a retina; an adaptable Rate Distortion manifold, whose 'topology', in a large sense, reflects the hierarchy of embedding constraints acting on consciousness. This view greatly extends what Baars has characterized as 'contexts.

From the Back Cover

"This book brings together the fundamental ideas of information theory and the statistical mechanics of phase transitions within the context of the neurosciences, culture, immunology and socio-psychological studies. Outlined is a program pertaining to a dynamic and semantic extension of current models for the global neuronal workspace as were previously introduced by Baars, Dretske and others. Topics include original applications of rate distortion and large deviations theory, biological renormalization, and retinal tuning as means towards understanding consciousness on the large scale. The overall treatment is concise, has been well thought out, and the mathematical details should be accessible to both students and researchers in the cognitive and life sciences."

- James Glazebrook Ph.D, Eastern Illinois University, USA