[Bjorn Simonsen (2010.04.04,14:45 EUST)]
I wish to share my thoughts about Conscious awareness with some who love things they don’t understand. Of course the way I think may be wrong, but maybe you will find a promise in my text.
[From Bruce Gregory (2010.04.01.0733 EDT)]
BP previously:" I definitely agree with this:"No one has the slightest clue as to how the workings of the brain lead to conscious awareness. " However, we don’t even know IF consciousness is a brain function, which you seem to assume without proof when you ask how it could arise from brain function.
BG: This is certainly an assumption, but I think it is the only assumption one can make within the current scientific worldview.
Bjorn
Basically I disagree with you Bill. I think you know what Conscious awareness is, and you will agree after reading my thoughts. Yes, I agree wilth you Bruce, I think we understand what Conscious awareness is in our current worldview. I think PCT is an easy way to understand it.
[From Bill Powers (2010.03.31.1905 MDT)]
BP: … I have, as you know, shown that there is a difference between
perception and awareness, so even perception can happen without
consciousness, but consciousness can’t happen without consciousness.
Bjorn
If I remember correct, you say that the perceptions changes like a kaleidoscope, while that sence of being aware remains quite unchanged.
The speedometer Arrow changes in its pointing to different speede figures, while the speedometer is quite unchanged. (Don’t be too serious about the last sentence, but it is a thought.)
Bill
All we can do about that is keep trying to ferret
out mistakes and be willing to abandon them when found.
Bjorn
I like the way you think, and I will abandon if I avgree that you express Ithink wrong thoughts.
Now I start.
People perceive something outside their sensing cells and they perceive what they imagine. All people outside CSG, that I know, say that what they perceive is is just the same as the real, real world out there. They don’t agree that what we perceive is a representation of the real, real world. They say we know so much about science and natural laws that what we perceive is the same as the real, real world. They give me an example that F = m*a.
What they don’t think is that F = ma is a perception in our brain, they say F = ma is the way the real real world function. And they will not explain why they think so if F = m*a is not a perception.
Statement one: F = m*a is a perception.
Try to be a passanger in a car and start sleeping. Ask the driver to stop the car sudden when you sleep. When you sleep you are not conscious that you are moving with the car. When the car stops sudden you become (more) conscious. Something interesting happened now. The “a” in F= m*a changed. And the “a” is basic in my way of thinking.
When I talk with people and ask if they are conscious, they say “yes” and they explain that they can see me and many other things, sometimes they say that they can hear my questions. It is common to think about our sight when we talk about consciousness. But we have five different types of sensining cells, and more, I think. When something happens, we sense it by our sensing cells.
Statement two: In the same way that changes in “a” (F = m*a) are felt by the sensory cells within our skin, changes in other sensory cells are felt. When no sensory cells receive changing intensities we are more or less unconscious. Something happens when the sensory cells receive changing intensities. This something I call consciousness or awareness or better conscious awareness.
Model a = F/m
Changes in sensory cells = something that affect the sensory cells / something that describes the state of what affects the sensory cells.
Coscious awareness = something that affect the sensory cells / something that describes the state of what affects the sensory cells.
Conscious awqareness = the sum of our perceptions.
Bjorn