11-28-2016, 08:51 AM
On a personal level, writing is a way of talking to our future selves.
(That future sometimes being only minutes away [at least for me
]).
It could also be another way for our separate selves to communicate:
Multi-Consciousness - Joao Barcellos:
(That future sometimes being only minutes away [at least for me
]).It could also be another way for our separate selves to communicate:
Multi-Consciousness - Joao Barcellos:
"One of the most widely accepted models of the brain's functional structure is the one
in which the brain is divided into functional areas. In this model, each functional area
of the brain is responsible for a function or a small set of functions. These functional
areas, which do not necessarily need to occupy a contiguous space in the brain, are
called functional modules. Thus, within this theory, the brain is a set of functional
modules, each one responsible for a small group of information-processing tasks.
Within this perspective, our consciousness would also be one of these modules. The
module responsible for consciousness must not be distributed throughout the brain,
since when we are unconscious there are parts of the brain that still work.
I believe one of the main functions of human consciousness is to delay impulses and/or
desires so that they can be subjected to rational analysis (another set of modules)
before they are corresponded. That way we may have more efficient responses in relation
to the stimuli we receive if we respond to them effectively, with intelligence.
Nevertheless, the main function of consciousness is the ability to feel. But the ability
to feel is the ability to receive various impulses and somehow evaluate them before
producing a response.
If we look at each brain module within this perspective of being an autonomous and
thinking organism, since they also process signals, we can see that each one of them
also have its own conscience: their function is exactly to receive several signals from
other brain regions and process them before returning an answer.
Thus, each brain module could be seen as having its own "consciousness". They may have
the perception of "self-consciousness", capable of perceiving itself, or not. It is possible
that each of these "conscious-modules" that form the brain feel things very different
from what our conscience normally does. That is because our consciousness, as one of the
modules of the brain, is able to feel and perceive the result only, the signals output from
other modules, that is, the outcome of its internal processing.
It is important to realize that this concept of "multi-consciousness" is very different
from the "Multiple Personality" of the traditional psychiatry . In this pathology, every
facet of personality takes over consciousness in an excluding way. When one is active,
the other is not and vice versa. The "Multi-consciousness" is not like that. There are
multiple consciousnesses simultaneously active in our brains. The one we call "consciousness"
would be just one of them, and perhaps not even the most important one, as the famous
experiments of Benjamin Libet showed ( Libet set up an experiment showing that our
consciousness does not seem to be the main source of our free will.* ) . It is interesting
to think that we can live with several of our internal "I" s, without even knowing what
"they" actually feel and think.
We could theorize that our brain can have multiple internal consciousnesses, and that the
one we call "consciousness" is just one of many that inhabit our brain and it has the ability
to monitor the others, choosing which module to activate or not.
It is also possible that this module is not conscious, but is a common area of the brain
that is used as a way of storing data so that different modules of the brain can exchange
information among themselves and reach a consensus (or not) as to which actions to take."
* Wiki article about Benjamin Libet's experiment can be found here.
in which the brain is divided into functional areas. In this model, each functional area
of the brain is responsible for a function or a small set of functions. These functional
areas, which do not necessarily need to occupy a contiguous space in the brain, are
called functional modules. Thus, within this theory, the brain is a set of functional
modules, each one responsible for a small group of information-processing tasks.
Within this perspective, our consciousness would also be one of these modules. The
module responsible for consciousness must not be distributed throughout the brain,
since when we are unconscious there are parts of the brain that still work.
I believe one of the main functions of human consciousness is to delay impulses and/or
desires so that they can be subjected to rational analysis (another set of modules)
before they are corresponded. That way we may have more efficient responses in relation
to the stimuli we receive if we respond to them effectively, with intelligence.
Nevertheless, the main function of consciousness is the ability to feel. But the ability
to feel is the ability to receive various impulses and somehow evaluate them before
producing a response.
If we look at each brain module within this perspective of being an autonomous and
thinking organism, since they also process signals, we can see that each one of them
also have its own conscience: their function is exactly to receive several signals from
other brain regions and process them before returning an answer.
Thus, each brain module could be seen as having its own "consciousness". They may have
the perception of "self-consciousness", capable of perceiving itself, or not. It is possible
that each of these "conscious-modules" that form the brain feel things very different
from what our conscience normally does. That is because our consciousness, as one of the
modules of the brain, is able to feel and perceive the result only, the signals output from
other modules, that is, the outcome of its internal processing.
It is important to realize that this concept of "multi-consciousness" is very different
from the "Multiple Personality" of the traditional psychiatry . In this pathology, every
facet of personality takes over consciousness in an excluding way. When one is active,
the other is not and vice versa. The "Multi-consciousness" is not like that. There are
multiple consciousnesses simultaneously active in our brains. The one we call "consciousness"
would be just one of them, and perhaps not even the most important one, as the famous
experiments of Benjamin Libet showed ( Libet set up an experiment showing that our
consciousness does not seem to be the main source of our free will.* ) . It is interesting
to think that we can live with several of our internal "I" s, without even knowing what
"they" actually feel and think.
We could theorize that our brain can have multiple internal consciousnesses, and that the
one we call "consciousness" is just one of many that inhabit our brain and it has the ability
to monitor the others, choosing which module to activate or not.
It is also possible that this module is not conscious, but is a common area of the brain
that is used as a way of storing data so that different modules of the brain can exchange
information among themselves and reach a consensus (or not) as to which actions to take."
* Wiki article about Benjamin Libet's experiment can be found here.
a brightly colored fungus that grows in bark inclusions