Edelman review
Bernie Baars has written a very helpful review of Edelman's recent work:
http://www.nsi.edu/users/seth/Papers/accs03abs.pdf
Irrespective of its (I think obvious) consonance with the theory of natural individuals, Edelman's work and Baars review are wonderful in their...
Ironically...
Just this weekend I was reviewing the latest on Edelman and his colleague's work and was very thrilled. They've applied information theoretic analyses to neuronal group theory and the characteristics of the NG's in the thalamo-cortical system they've identified match nicely the...
Dennett is very explicit in his writings that his heterophenomenology is a kind of 3rd-person absolutism, and the clinical phenomena he discusses are interpreted from that point of view. Given his starting point, his arguments are actually for a conditional, "If 3rd-person absolutism is true...
In the history of things, I think have to take some responsibility for Chalmers' sometimes stating his argument in these terms. When we were in grad school together I was pretty relentless in forcing this on him as the fundamental problem (something he acknowledges in an endnote in his 1996...
Hi Steve,
Again FWIW: The Theory of Natural Individuals separates the notion of consciousness into two component notions, experiencing plus cognition. One can argue the legitimacy of this move, but that is what it does. It then proposes that there are kinds of experiencing that are kinds of...
Existence, organization and survival are clearly evident, though I'm not sure what you intend when you call them operators. I also don't know the sense you intend for "perfection" so I can't really comment, but, in general, I'm not likely to believe in something that would attract that label...
Hi Steve,
FWIW, my belief is close to the last part of your suggestion. If the Theory of Natural Individuals holds, the "purpose" of any natural individual is to achieve a more definite effective state for itself by reducing the number of possible joint states of its bound individuals. In the...