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Liane Gabora
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Amplifying Phenomenal Information: Toward a Fundamental Theory of Consciousness
abstract
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Fiona Macpherson
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The Power of Natural Selection abstract
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Anton Lethin
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How Do We Embody Intentionality? abstract
CONTINUING DEBATE
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Johnjoe McFadden
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The Conscious Electromagnetic Information (Cemi) Field Theory: The Hard
Problem Made Easy? abstract
OPINION
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William Irwin Thompson
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The Evolution of the Afterlife full text
REVIEW ARTICLES AND BOOK REVIEWS
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Steve Taylor
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Where Did It All Go Wrong? James DeMeo’s Saharasia Thesis and the Origins
of War abstract
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Keith Sutherland
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The Perils of Polymathy: Review of Nicholas Humphreys’ The Mind Made
Flesh full text
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Gary Fuhrman
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Review of Antonio R. Damasio et al. (ed.), Unity of Knowledge: The Convergence
of Natural and Human Science
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Gary Schouborg
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Review of Elio Frattaroli, Healing the Soul in the Age of the Brain
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C. Jason Throop
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Review of Charles M. Sherover, The Human Experience of Time
ABSTRACTS
Liane Gabora
Amplifying Phenomenal Information. Toward a Fundamental Theory of Consciousness
Abstract: Fundamental approaches bypass the problem of getting consciousness
from non-conscious components by positing that consciousness is a universal
primitive. For example, the double aspect theory of information holds that
information has a phenomenal aspect. How then do you get from phenomenal
information to human consciousness? This paper proposes that an entity
is conscious to the extent it amplifies information, first by trapping
and integrating it through closure, and second by maintaining dynamics
at the edge of chaos through simultaneous processes of divergence and convergence.
The origin of life through autocatalytic closure, and the origin of an
interconnected worldview through conceptual closure, induced phase transitions
in the degree to which information, and thus consciousness, is locally
amplified. Divergence and convergence of cognitive information may involve
phenomena observed in light e.g. focusing, interference, and resonance.
By making information flow inward- biased, closure shields us from external
consciousness; thus the paucity of consciousness may be an illusion.
Correspondence: Liane Gabora, Center Leo Apostel for Interdisciplinary
Studies (CLEA),
Free University of Brussels (VUB), Krijgskundestraat 33, Brussels,
B1160, Belgium.
Email: lgabora@vub.ac.be
Anton Lethin
How Do We Embody Intentionality?
Abstract: The enactive view states that mental processes are embodied in
the sensorimotor activity of the organism. This paper seeks to show how
it is possible to be conscious of intentions in an embodied way, by adding
detail about muscle spindle action to a theory put forward by Damasio.
Consciousness is here understood as the awareness of our intentionality.
This is a motor plan to interact with the environment, and is expressed
in the body. As the body prepares the muscles to act, there is propioceptive
feedback from the spindles. The muscle spindle system needs to be added
to Damasio’s body loop to clarify how intentionality is embodied.
He feels that core consciousness is based on the proto-self.
I believe that the muscle spindle feedback is part of the proto-self, and
enables the proto-self to sense the body’s motor preparation.
Correspondence: Anton Lethin, 300 Moncada Way, San Francisco, CA 94127,
USA.
Fiona Macpherson
The Power of Natural Selection
Abstract: In a recent paper, Steven Horst argued that if traditional physicalist
accounts of consciousness cannot explain why there are conscious phenomena
in the world then teleological accounts of consciousness that appeal to
the notion of natural selection cannot do so either. I agree with Horst’s
conclusion but his reasoning fails to address a rebuttal to his argument
made by the major proponent of such theories, namely, Fred Dretske. Dretske
argues that artificial selection can create new features and that, in an
analogous fashion, natural selection can too. I show that Dretske’s rebuttal
is inadequate because crucial features of the analogy fail. Teleological
accounts of consciousness that appeal to natural selection can only explain
the prevalence of consciousness.
Correspondence: Fiona Macpherson Dept of Logic and Metaphysics, University
of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9AL, Scotland. Email: fem5@st-and.ac.uk
Johnjoe McFadden
The Conscious Electromagnetic Information (Cemi) Field Theory. The Hard
Problem Made Easy?
Abstract: In the April 2002 edition of JCS I outlined the conscious electromagnetic
information field (cemi field) theory, claiming that consciousness is that
component of the brain’s electromagnetic field that is downloaded to motor
neurons and is thereby capable of communicating its informational content
to the outside world. In this paper I demonstrate that the theory is robust
to criticisms. I further explore implications of the theory particularly
as regards the relationship between electromagnetic fields, information,
the phenomenology of consciousness and the meaning of free will. Using
cemi field theory I propose a working hypothesis that shows, among other
things, that awareness and information represent the same phenomenon viewed
from different reference frames.
Correspondence: Johnjoe McFadden, School of Biomedical and Life Sciences,
University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 5XH, UK. Email: j.mcfadden@surrey.ac.uk
Steve Taylor
Where Did It All Go Wrong? James DeMeo’s Saharasia Thesis and the Origins
of War
Abstract: Why is human history a catalogue of one war after another? Physicalist
and sociobiological explanations of war seem to be lacking, especially
when we consider archaeological and ethnographic evidence for the absence
of war amongst hunter-gatherer societies and during the early to middle
Neolithic period of history. James DeMeo’s book Saharasia suggests that
the ‘age of war’ only began at around 4000 BCE, amongst particular human
groups who inhabited areas of Central Asia and the Middle East. He sees
it as the result of an environmental disaster which occurred at this time:
the dessication of the ‘Saharasia’ region. I summarize DeMeo’s findings,
but disagree with his Reichian analysis. I propose that the real factor
was the intensified ego-consciousness which these groups developed at this
time. I suggest how and why this ‘sharpened sense of ego’ arose, and at
how it gave rise to — and still gives rise to — war.
Correspondence: Email: essytaylor@yahoo.com
