Modeling consciousness as an adaptive phenomenon
Author:
Willard L. Miranker
Journal:
Quart. Appl. Math. 69 (2011), 291-308
MSC (2010):
Primary 92-XX
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1090/S0033-569X-2011-01220-3
Published electronically:
March 9, 2011
MathSciNet review:
2814528
Full-text PDF Free Access
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Abstract: We start at the level of a bacterium where an observer feature associated with foraging measurements motivates introduction of a notion of awareness (a proto-consciousness) as a primitive, a dualist construct. The relative simplicity of Darwinian concepts at the level of a bacterial colony then leads to development of an analytic theory of perceptual consciousness that includes colonial notions of qualia. Results of simulations that verify the colonial principles developed are given. We extend this approach, first to a neuron and then to a neuronal assembly, each extension accompanied by a derived consciousness construct. For each construct (dualist or derived), a mathematical model in the form of a measurable quantity called a token is developed. The pairs, token and construct, permit the design of experiments that would validate the theory. Applications of the theory are developed, each based upon the analytic model (the tokens) and each explaining a familiar aspect of human consciousness in mathematical terminology.
References
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References
- Ballard, D., Hayhoe, M., Pook, P., Rao, R. (2001). Deictic codes for the embodiment of cognition, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
- Barash, V., Miranker, W. (2006). Modeling awareness in a bacterial colony, Yale DCS TR 1369.
- Ben Jacob, E., Becker, I., Shapira, Y., Levine, H. (2004). Bacterial linguistic communication and social intelligence, Trends in Microbiology, 12, 366-372.
- Chalmers, D. (1996). The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory, NY, Oxford.
- Churchland, P. M. (1984). Matter and Consciousness, Cambridge, MIT Press.
- Curtis, H., Barnes, N.S. (1989). Biology, New York, Worth Publishers.
- Damasio, A. (2003). Looking for Spinoza, New York, Harcourt.
- Darwin, C. (1859). The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- Dawkins, R. (1976). The Selfish Gene, Oxford University Press.
- Dennett, D. (1991). Consciousness Explained, Boston, Little Brown.
- Dennett, D. (1996). Kinds of Minds, Towards Understanding Consciousness, NY, Basic.
- Edelman, G., Tononi, G. (2001). A Universe of Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination, New York, Basic Books.
- Harti, D., Jones, E. (2005). Genetics: Analysis of Genes and Genones, Jones & Bartlett, Boston.\nobreakspace
- Haykin, S. (1999). Neural Networks, a Comp. Foundation, Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River.
- Hebb, D. (1946). On the nature of fear, Physiol. Rev. 53, 259-276.
- Hebb, D. (1949). Organization of Behavior: A Neurophysiological Theory, New York, Wiley.
- Kant, I. (1781), Critique of Pure Reason
- Llinas, R. (2001). i of the Vortex, Cambridge, MIT Press.
- Margenau, H. (1950). Nature of Physical Reality; A Philosophy of Modern Physics, NY, McGraw-Hill. MR 0035258 (11:709h)
- Margenau, H. (1978). Physics and Philosophy: Selected Essays, Reality; a Philosophy of Modern Physics, Boston, Dordrecht. MR 529767 (80c:01020)
- Margulis, L. (2001). The Conscious Cell, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 929.
- Mayr, E. (1982). The growth of biological thought. Cambridge, Harvard University Press.
- McDermott, D. (2001). Mind and Mechanism, Cambridge, MIT Press.
- Miranker, W. (2000). Consciousness is an Information State, J. Neural Parallel and Scientific Computation, 8, 83-104.
- Miranker, W.L. (2005) Consciousness, a Darwinian Process, Yale DCS TR 1344.
- Miranker, W.L. (2008). The neural network as a renormalizer of information, Quart. Appl. Math. 66, 379–394. MR 2416779 (2009b:91127)
- Nagel, T. (1974), What is it like to be a bat? Philosophical Review 83, 435-450.
- Penrose, R. (1994). Shadows of the Mind, New York, Oxford University Press. MR 1865778 (2002g:00003)
- Sacks, O. (1995). An Anthropologist on Mars, New York, Knopf.
- Schrödinger, E. (1958). Mind and Matter, Cambridge University Press.
- Sheets-Johnstone, M. (1998). Consciousness; a Natural History, J. Consciousness Studies 3, 260-294.
- Stapp, H. (1998). The hard problem: a quantum approach, J. Consciousness Studies, 3, 192-210.
- Stapp, H. (1999). Attention, intention, and will in quantum physics, J. Consciousness Studies.
- Turing, A.M. (1952). The chemical basis of morphogenesis. Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. London B237, 37-72.
- Velmans, M. (2000). Understanding Consciousness, London, Routledge.
- Waters, C.M., Bassler, B.L. (2005). Quorum Sensing: Cell-to-cell communication in bacteria, Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology, 21, 319-346.
- Waxman, S. (2005). Brain (August 18, 2005, online).
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Additional Information
Willard L. Miranker
Affiliation:
Department of Computer Science, Yale University
Keywords:
Bacterial colony,
consciousness,
Darwinism,
dualist construct,
neuronal assembly
Received by editor(s):
September 7, 2009
Published electronically:
March 9, 2011
Article copyright:
© Copyright 2011
Brown University
The copyright for this article reverts to public domain 28 years after publication.
