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Consciousness is one of the major unsolved problems in science. How do the feelings and sensations making up conscious experience arise from the concerted actions of nerve cells and their associated synaptic and molecular processes? Can such feelings be explained by modern science, or is there an entirely different kind of explanation needed? And how can this seemingly intractable problem be approached experimentally? How do the operations of the conscious mind emerge out of the specific interactions involving billions of neurons? This multi-authored book seeks answers to these questions within a range of physically based frameworks, i.e, the underlying assumption is that consciousness can be understood using the intellectual potential of modern physics and other sciences. There are a number of theories of consciousness in existence, some of which are based on classical physics while some others require the use of quantum concepts. The latter ones have drawn a lot of criticism from the present-day scientific establishment while simultaneously claiming that classical approaches are doomed to failure. This book presents the reader with a spectrum of opinions from both sides of this on-going scientific debate, letting him/her decide which of these approaches are most likely to succeed.
List of contents
The Path Ahead.- Consciousness and Quantum Physics: Empirical Research on the Subjective Reduction of the Statevector.- Microtubules in the Cerebral Cortex: Role in Memory and Consciousness.- Towards Experimental Tests of Quantum Effects in Cytoskeletal Proteins.- Physicalism, Chaos and Reductionism.- Consciousness, Neurobiology and Quantum Mechanics: The Case for a Connection.- Life, Catalysis and Excitable Media: A Dynamic Systems Approach to Metabolism and Cognition.- The Dendritic Cytoskeleton as a Computational Device: An Hypothesis.- Recurrent Quantum Neural Network and its Applications.- Microtubules as a Quantum Hopfield Network.- Consciousness and Quantum Brain Dynamics.- The CEMI Field Theory: Seven Clues to the Nature of Consciousness.- Quantum Cosmology and the Hard Problem of the Conscious Brain.- Consciousness and Logic in a Quantum-Computing Universe.
Summary
Consciousness remains one of the major unsolved problems in science. How do the feelings and sensations making up conscious experience arise from the concerted actions of nerve cells and their associated synaptic and molecular processes? Can such feelings be explained by modern science, or is there an entirely different kind of explanation needed? And how can this seemingly intractable problem be approached experimentally? How do the operations of the conscious mind emerge out of the specific interactions involving billions of neurons? This book seeks answers to these questions using the underlying assumption that consciousness can be understood using the intellectual potential of modern physics and other sciences. There are a number of theories of consciousness, some based on classical physics while others require the use of quantum concepts. The latter ones have drawn criticism from the parts of the scientific establishment while simultaneously claiming that classical approaches are doomed to failure. The contributing authors present a spectrum of opinions from both sides of this on-going scientific debate, allowing readers to decide for themselves which of the approaches are most likely to succeed.
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From the reviews:
"The intention of the book was clearly to present many different views of the consciousness problem, and as such it succeeds extremely well. ... If you are interested in consciousness and its interaction with the physical and biological worlds, this is an excellent book that I recommend highly." (Philosophy, Religion and Science Book Reviews, bookinspections.wordpress.com, March, 2014)
