Consciousness

Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one's environment. Philosophers divide consciousness into phenomenal consciousness which is experience itself and access consciousness which is the processing of the things in experience (Block 2004).

Physical approaches

Even at the dawn of Newtonian science Leibniz and many others were suggesting physical theories of consciousness. Modern physical theories of consciousness can be divided into three types: theories to explain behaviour and access consciousness, theories to explain phenomenal consciousness and theories to explain the quantum mechanical (QM) measurement problem. Theories that seek to explain behaviour are an everyday part of neuroscience, some of these theories of access consciousness, such as Edelman's theory contentiously identify phenomenal consciousness with reflex events in the brain. Theories that seek to explain phenomenal consciousness directly, such as Space-time theories of consciousness and Electromagnetic theories of consciousness, have been available for almost a century but have not as yet been confirmed by experiment. Theories that attempt to explain the QM measurement problem include Pribram and Bohm's Holonomic brain theory, Hameroff and Penrose's Orch-OR theory, Spin-Mediated Consciousness Theory and the Many-minds interpretation. Some of these QM theories offer descriptions of phenomenal consciousness as well as QM interpretations of access consciousness. None of the quantum mechanical theories has been confirmed by experiment.

Related Topics:
Leibniz - Measurement problem - Neuroscience - Edelman's theory - Space-time theories of consciousness - Electromagnetic theories of consciousness - Pribram - Bohm's - Holonomic brain theory - Hameroff - Penrose's - Orch-OR theory - Spin-Mediated Consciousness Theory - Many-minds interpretation

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There is also a concerted effort in the field of Artificial Intelligence to create digital computer programs that can simulate consciousness.

Related Topics:
Artificial Intelligence - Simulate consciousness

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