RAY KURZWEIL: The Singularity

NEILS BOHR:

“You’re not thinking, - you’re just being

logical!”

ROGER PENROSE:

Algorithms for intuition and common

sense?

ANTONIO DAMASIO:

The importance of a body

CONSCIOUSNESS AS A PROPERTY OF ‘MERE’

COMPLEXITY…

Simple brains vs. complex computers

Human brain non-computational

Importance of a body

The qualitative dimension of diverse neurochemicals

THE TURING TEST….

STUART SUTHERLAND:

A computer would be conscious when it ran

off with his wife…

WHAT IS THE BASIS OF HUMAN UNIQUENESS?

DEVELOPING A MIND…

Newborn 3 Months 15 Months 2 Years

EXPERIENCES LEAVE THEIR MARK ON THE

BRAIN...

A. Pascual-Leone, et al., J Neurophysiology 74 (1995):1037-1045

Control

Physical Practice

Mental Practice

‘THINKING IS…

MOVEMENT CONFINED TO THE BRAIN’

AN ‘ENRICHED’ ENVIRONMENT…

Standard ‘Enriched’

EFFECTS OF AN ‘ENRICHED’ ENVIRONMENT

CONNECTIONS GIVE EVER DEEPER MEANING

OVER TIME…

THE BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF THE MIND IS THE

PERSONALISATION OF THE BRAIN THROUGH UNIQUE

DYNAMIC CONFIGURATIONS OF NEURONAL

CONNECTIONS,

DRIVEN BY UNIQUE EXPERIENCES

LOSING THE MIND...

Arousal Addiction Reward

THE CASE OF PHINEAS GAGE:

Damage to Prefrontal Cortex

Led to Excessive Recklessness

Research Article Inverse Association Between BMI and Prefrontal Metabolic Activity In Healthy Adults

Volkow ND, Wang GJ, Telang F, Fowler JS, Goldstein RZ, Alia-Klein N, Logan J, Wong C,

Thanos PK, Ma Y, Pradhan K.

How to cite: Obesity (2009) Inverse Association Between BMI and Prefrontal Metabolic Activity In Healthy Adults. (1):60-5. doi:

10.1038/oby.2008.469. Epub 2008 Oct 23.

Research Article Decision-Making in Obesity: A Study using the Gambling

Pignatti R, Bertella L, Albani G, Mauro A, Molinari E, Semenza C.

How to cite: Eat Weight Disord. (2006) Decision-Making in Obesity: A Study using the Gambling

11(3):126-32

WITHOUT

SCHIZOPHRENIA

WITH

SCHIZOPHRENIA

A COMMON FACTOR:

The Press of the Senses?

Having a sensational time

Letting yourself go…

UNDER-ACTIVE PREFRONAL CORTEX...

‘MEANINGLESS’

PREFRONTAL UNDER-FUNCTION?

Strong feelings

Sensory

Here-and-now

External stimuli dominant

Little ‘meaning’

Reduced sense of self

No time-space

Infants and children

More

‘MEANINGFUL’

PREFRONTAL ACTIVATION?

Thinking dominates

Cognitive

Past / present / future

Internal stimuli dominant

Personalised ‘meaning’

Strong sense of self

Clear time-space reference

Older children and adults

Less

TWO BASIC MODES FOR THE HUMAN BRAIN

‘MEANINGLESS’

PREFRONTAL UNDER-FUNCTION?

Strong feelings

Sensory

Here-and-now

External stimuli dominant

Little ‘meaning’

Reduced sense of self

No time-space

Infants and children

More

‘MEANINGFUL’

PREFRONTAL ACTIVATION?

Thinking dominates

Cognitive

Past / present / future

Internal stimuli dominant

Personalised ‘meaning’

Strong sense of self

Clear time-space reference

Older children and adults

Less

TWO BASIC MODES FOR THE HUMAN BRAIN

In 11 studies, we found that participants typically did

not enjoy spending 6 to 15 minutes in a room by themselves

with nothing to do but think, that they enjoyed doing

mundane external activities much more, and that many

preferred to administer electric shocks to themselves instead

of being left alone with their thoughts. Most people seem to

prefer to be doing something rather than nothing, even if that

something is negative.

THE MINDSET OF THE FUTUREWilson et al. (2014) Science July 4th

UNCONSCIOUSNESS IS VARIABLE…

IN SEARCH OF A PROCESS...

…Where Consciousness is continuously variable

NEURONAL ASSEMBLIES..

Variable, transient (subsecond), macro-scale groups of neurons

(>10 million) not confined to/defined by anatomical brain

regions/systems.

‘RIPPLES’ IN THE BRAIN

NEURONAL ASSEMBLIES

Badin & Greenfield

FORCE OF THROW OF STONE

BaboonCamel

RabbitSquirrel

Human

CatMonkey

NO ANATOMICAL RUBICON….

GENTLER RIPPLES: SMALLER ASSEMBLIES

WEAKLY THROWN STONE

SIZE OF STONE

STATES OF AROUSAL…

THE NEUROCHEMISTRY OF AROUSAL

VISCOSITY OF FLUID:

ACTION OF CHEMICAL MODULATORS

STATES OF PAIN..

FEATURES OF PAIN PERCEPTION

• Depression (large assembly state): low threshold

• Schizophrenia (small assembly state): high threshold

• Pain expressed as other associations

• Diurnal threshold

• Greater anticipation, greater the pain

• Phantom limb (neuron matrix)

• Morphine, pain no longer ‘matters’

• Morphine (analgesic), dream like euphoria

• Absent in dreams (small assembly state?)

THE LARGER THE ASSEMBLY ,

THE GREATER THE PAIN AND VICE VERSA...

Dep

olar

isat

ion

(% c

hang

e)

STATES OF ANAESTHESIA

ANAESTHESIA NOT ALL-OR-NONE.........

Light anaesthesia

Deep anaesthesiaDep

olar

isat

ion

(% c

hang

e)EFFECT OF ANAESTHETIC DEPTH ON ASSEMBLY DYNAMICS

(Devonshire et al., 2010)

Dep

olar

isat

ion

(% c

hang

e)

ACTION ON DYNAMICS OF ASSEMBLIES

OPTICAL IMAGING COULD REVEAL FACTORS

GOVERNING FORMATION OF TRANSIENT NEURONAL

ASSEMBLIES

The model could be tested as a means

of linking phenomenology and physiology

FACTORS INFLUENCING FORMATION OF

NEURONAL ASSEMBLY

• Degree of neuronal activity: Intensity of senses

• Extent of pre-existing associations: ‘Significance’

• Availability of modulators: Arousal

• Availability of other modulators: Predisposition / mood

• Formation of competing assemblies: Distraction

• Input from prefrontal cortex: Narrative

Neuronal Connectivity

TriggerAmine

modulatorAssembly Turnover

Assembly size

Physiology

Very extensive Strong High Low Large Pain

Extensive Strong Low Low Large Meditation

Extensive Weak Low Low Small Dreaming

Sparse Strong High High Small Childhood

Extensive Strong Medium Low LargeAbstract thought

Very extensive Strong Low Very low Large Depression

Sparse Strong High Low SmallAlzheimer’s

Disease

Very extensive Strong High Low Large Anxiety

Extensive Strong High High Small Schizophrenia

Extensive Strong High High Small Fear

Age/species/mind+Stimulus/+strength/significance

+Thrill +DistractionDegree of

consciousnessPhenomenology

“Even so, mankind will suffer badly from the disease of

boredom, a disease spreading more widely each year and

growing in intensity. This will have serious mental, emotional

and sociological consequences, and I dare say that psychiatry

will be far and away the most important medical specialty in

2014. The lucky few who can be involved in creative work of

any sort will be the true elite of mankind, for they alone will

do more than serve a machine.”

ISAAC ASIMOV, 1964

SEARCH ENGINES:

Information Vs Knowledge?

‘Now, what I want is, Facts.

Teach these boys and girls

nothing but Facts. Facts alone

are wanted in life. Plant

nothing else, and root out

everything else. You can only

form the minds of reasoning

animals upon Facts: nothing

else will ever be of any service

to them’.

Thomas Gradgrind

‘I worry that the sort of overwhelming rapidity of

information…is in fact affecting cognition. It is affecting

deeper thinking. I still believe that sitting down and reading a

book is the best way to really learn something. And I worry

that we’re losing that…’

ERIC SCHMIDT

(Chairman, Google)

PRINCESS MARYA…

‘From the moment we become aware of others, we demand to

be told stories that allow us to make sense of the world, to

inhabit the mind of someone else. In old age we tell stories to

make small museums of memory. It matters not whether the

stories are true or imaginary.

The narrative, whether oral or written, is a staple of every

culture the world over. But stories demand time and

concentration; the narrative does not simply transmit

information, but invites the reader or listener to witness the

unfolding of events’.

BEN MACINTYRE

(I) Premium on de-constructing/ challenging dogma

THE 3 STEPS TO CREATIVITY

THE 3 STEPS TO CREATIVITY

(I) Premium on de-constructing/ challenging dogma

(II) Unusual associations

THE 3 STEPS TO CREATIVITY

(I) Premium on de-constructing

(II) Unusual associations

BUT ALSO

(III) These new associations activate more extensive

connections (‘have a meaning’).

Talk presented at the 19th International Interdisciplinary Seminar

What differentiates human persons from animals and machines?

Netherhall House, London, 5-1-2017