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Every human being is aware of the flow of time. This fact is embodied in the existence of such notions as the past and the future, the two domains being separated from each other by the single moment of the present. While the past is regarded as fixed and definite, the future is viewed as unknown, uncertain, and undetermined. The only perceivable moment is the present, the `now' - the ever-changing point moving from the past into the future. Physics tells us a different story: not only are the vast majority of physical laws time-reversible, but the concept of the `now' itself has no place at all in physics. In other words, the equations of physics do not distinguish between the past and the future and seem to be completely oblivious to the very idea of the present. This book discusses the biological and psychological aspects of perception of time, and the problems related to the determination of location arising from quantum physics, together with comments and opinions from philosophers and physicists.
The basic nuts and bolts underlying human behavior remain mysterious from a scientific point of view. Everyday acts — naming an object, suppressing the urge to say something, or grabbing a waiter’s attention with a “cappuccino, please” — remain difficult to understand from a mechanistic standpoint. Despite these challenges, research has begun to illuminate, not only the basic processes underlying human action production, but the role of conscious processing in the control of behavior. This Research Topic, “Consciousness and the Control of Action,” is devoted to surveying and synthesizing these developments from disparate fields of study.
Immunology, from its earliest inception, has been concerned with biological identity—its establishment and maintenance. Three key characteristics—individuality, immunity, and identification—together have defined immune identity, and as one notion changes meaning, so do the others. Individuality undergirded the science from its inception, for the defense against pathogens was framed by an attacked patient (individual) pitted against alien others, the invaders. In this scenario, distinct borders confer individuality, and immunity is the response to the violation of those boundaries.
The problem of how the brain produces consciousness, subjectivity and 'something it is like to be' remains one of the greatest challenges to a complete science of the natural world. While various scientists and philosophers approach the problem from their own unique perspectives and in the terms of their own respective fields, Biophysics of Consciousness: A Foundational Approach attempts a consilience across disparate disciplines to explain how it is possible that an objective brain produces subjective experience.This volume unites the crème de la crème of physicists, neuroscientists, and psychiatrists in the attempt to understand consciousness through a foundational approach encompassing ontological, evolutionary, neurobiological, and Freudian interpretations with the focus on conscious phenomena occurring in the brain. By integrating the perspectives of these diverse disciplines with the latest research and theories on the biophysics of the brain, the book tries to explain how consciousness can be an adaptive and causal element in the natural world.
This book on consciousness spans the relation of individuals with the world and the individual's constitution at different organizational levels. Covering a diversity of perspectives and presenting a theoretical synthesis, the book will stimulate the current debate on the nature of consciousness, strengthening a more systematic approach to the phenomenon.
The human mind is one of the most extraordinary mysteries of the contemporary sciences and philosophy. We know for sure that we have one, and that we have feelings and conscious experience. But why is that? This anthology addresses contemporary issues in the field of study that is the philosophy of mind. It is divided into five main parts: i) the concept of Self in the contemporary philosophy of mind; ii) sensory experience: odors, vision and colors; iii) Artificial Intelligence: the future, the ethics and the costs; iv) the relationship between neuroscience and philosophy; and, finally, v) the influences and history of the philosophy of mind. This book will be useful for specialists of the field, but also for others who are interested in some of the more updated sciences of the mind.
Systematically presented to enhance the feasibility of fuzzy models, this book introduces the novel concept of a fuzzy network whose nodes are rule bases and their interconnections are interactions between rule bases in the form of outputs fed as inputs.
This book discusses the paradigm of quantum ontology as an appropriate model for measuring cognitive processes. It clearly shows the inadequacy of the application of classical probability theory in modelling the human cognitive domain. The chapters investigate the context dependence and neuronal basis of cognition in a coherent manner. According to this framework, epistemological issues related to decision making and state of mind are seen to be similar to issues related to equanimity and neutral mind, as discussed in Buddhist perspective. The author states that quantum ontology as a modelling tool will help scientists create new methodologies of modelling in other streams of science as well.
Complex system studies are a growing area of central importance to a wide range of disciplines, ranging from physics to politics and beyond. Adopting this interdisciplinary approach, Systems, Self-Organisation and Information presents and discusses a range of ground-breaking research in complex systems theory. Building upon foundational concepts, the volume introduces a theory of Self-Organization, providing definitions of concepts including system, structure, organization, functionality, and boundary. Biophysical and cognitive approaches to Self-Organization are also covered, discussing the complex dynamics of living beings and the brain, and self-organized adaptation and learning in comput...
In Deciphering Reality: Simulations, Tests, and Designs, Benjamin B. Olshin takes a problem-based approach to the question of the nature of reality. In a series of essays, the book examines the detection of computer simulations from the inside, wrestles with the problem of visual models of reality, explores Daoist conceptions of reality, and offers possible future directions for deciphering reality. The ultimate goal of the book is to provide a more accessible approach, unlike highly complex philosophical works on metaphysics, which are inaccessible to non-academic readers, and overly abstract (and at times, highly speculative) popular works that offer a mélange of physics, philosophy, and consciousness.