Cogprints

Competing for Consciousness: A Darwinian Mechanism at an Appropriate Level of Explanation

Calvin, William H (1998) Competing for Consciousness: A Darwinian Mechanism at an Appropriate Level of Explanation. [Journal (Paginated)]

Full text available as:

[img] HTML
55Kb

Abstract

Treating consciousness as awareness or attention greatly underestimates it, ignoring the temporary levels of organization associated with higher intellectual function (syntax, planning, logic, music). The tasks that require consciousness tend to be the ones that demand a lot of resources. Routine tasks can be handled on the back burner but dealing with ambiguity, groping around offline, generating creative choices, and performing precision movements may temporarily require substantial allocations of neocortex. Here I will attempt to clarify the appropriate levels of explanation (ranging from quantum aspects to association cortex dynamics) and then propose a specific mechanism (consciousness as the current winner of Darwinian copying competitions in cerebral cortex) that seems capable of encompassing the higher intellectual function aspects of consciousness as well as some of the attentional aspects. It includes features such as a coding space appropriate for analogies and a supervisory Darwinian process that can bias the operation of other Darwinian processes.

Item Type:Journal (Paginated)
Subjects:Neuroscience > Neuropsychology
Biology > Sociobiology
Philosophy > Philosophy of Mind
Neuroscience > Behavioral Neuroscience
ID Code:3218
Deposited By: Calvin, Prof. William H.
Deposited On:17 Oct 2003
Last Modified:11 Mar 2011 08:55

References in Article

Select the SEEK icon to attempt to find the referenced article. If it does not appear to be in cogprints you will be forwarded to the paracite service. Poorly formated references will probably not work.

Derek Bickerton (1990), Language and Species (University of Chicago Press).

Jacob Bronowski (1973), The Ascent of Man (Little, Brown), pp. 348-349.

William H. Calvin (1987), “The brain as a Darwin Machine,” Nature 330:33-34.

William H. Calvin (1995), “Cortical columns, modules, and Hebbian cell assemblies,” in Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks, M. A. Arbib, ed. (MIT Press), pp. 269-272.

William H. Calvin (1996a). How Brains Think: Evolving Intelligence, Then and Now (Basic Books, New York).

William H. Calvin (1996b). The Cerebral Code: Thinking a Thought in the Mosaics of the Mind (M.I.T. Press, Cambridge MA).

William H. Calvin (1997). “The six essentials? Minimal requirements for the darwinian bootstrapping of quality,” Journal of Memetics 1, at http://www.fmb.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit/1997/vol1/calvin_wh.html

Richard Dawkins (1993), “Viruses of the mind,” in Dennett and His Critics: Demystifying Mind, edited by Bo Dahlbom (Blackwell).

Daniel C. Dennett (1991), Consciousness Explained (Little, Brown).

Douglas R. Hofstadter (1985), Metamagical Themas (Basic Books), p. 787.

John H. Holland (1992), “Genetic algorithms,” Scientific American 267(1):66-72.

Mari Jibu and Kunio Yasue (1995), Quantum Brain Dynamics and Consciousness: An Introduction. John Benjamins, Amsterdam.

Jennifer S. Lund, Takashi Yoshioka, Jonathan B. Levitt (1993), “Comparison of intrinsic connectivity in different areas of macaque monkey cerebral cortex,” Cerebral Cortex 3:148-162.

John Maynard Smith and Eörs Szathmáry (1995), The Major Transitions of Evolution (Freeman).

Barbara A. McGuire, Charles D. Gilbert, Patricia K. Rivlin, Torsten N. Wiesel (1991), “Targets of horizontal connections in macaque primary visual cortex,” Journal of Comparative Neurology 305:370-392.

Heinz Pagels, The Dreams of Reason (Simon & Schuster 1988).

Roger Penrose (1994), Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness (Oxford University Press).

Alan Peters, E. Yilmaz (1993), Neuronal organization in area 17 of cat visual cortex. Cerebral Cortex 3:49-68.

Karl Popper (1979), quoted by Raphael Sassower in Cultural Collisions: Postmodern Technoscience (Routledge).

Hugh Smith (1935),“Synchronous flashing of fireflies,” Science 82:51.

David Somers and Nancy Kopell (1993), “Rapid synchronization through fast threshold modulation,” Biological Cybernetics 68:393-407.

Paul Valéry (1962). quoted at p. 346 in W. H. Auden and L. Kronenberger, The Viking Book of Aphorisms (Viking).

Arthur T. Winfree (1967). “Biological rhythms and the behavior of populations of coupled oscillators,” Journal of Theoretical Biology 16:15-42 (1967)

Metadata

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Cogprints is powered by EPrints 3 which is developed by the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. More information and software credits.