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Keeping an open mind about consciousness research
It's not often you find philosophers of consciousness, neuroscientists and their naysayers happily on the same page. As a group, they often disagree, sometimes bitterly, but an online publication may broker cordial and good-natured communication in future.
Welcome to the brave new harmonious world of Open MIND, which celebrates the 20th meeting of the MIND group, founded in 2003 by Thomas Metzinger at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany. The aim of the group is to foster young researchers and philosophers interested in debating brain, body, mind and consciousness.
The contributors had to abide by the house rules of editors Metzinger and Jennifer Windt, who say the website is "characterised by epistemic humility, intellectual honesty and a new culture of charity". By epistemic humility, they mean accepting that despite our certainty about something, we could be wrong and should therefore welcome dissent and take contrary opinions seriously.
The site and its papers cover a wide range of topics from the sense of self, neuropsychological disorders, lucid dreaming and embodied cognition, to neural correlates of consciousness, visual perception, illusions, artificial minds and much more.
Eclectic collection
The list of contributors is also impressive, with familiar veteran philosophers such as Daniel Dennett and Ned Block, and other stalwarts like Alva Noë and Evan Thompson.
To judge by the list, the attempt to understand consciousness and the mind is no longer the sole domain of philosophers. Cognitive science has plenty to offer – indeed this online volume runs to 1545 pages and the way it mixes things up can only be a good thing, for readers and those working in the field.
The interdisciplinary approach makes for an eclectic collection of papers. For instance, Dennett revisits his theory of consciousness, in which he argues that there are no such things as qualia – the experience of "redness", or the smell of a rose, for instance – and why humans are by necessity convinced that such things exist. Dennett begins his piece: "People are often baffled by my theory of consciousness, which seems to them to be summed up neatly in the paradoxical claim that consciousness is an illusion."
The new brigade is there, too. For example, philosopher Jakob Hohwy of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, tackles neurobiologist Karl Friston's free energy principle, which argues that the brain's job is to maintain the body in a kind of equilibrium by minimising unusual states of being.
This is in line with one of the most popular current theories about the brain, which states that it does its job by making predictions about everything, from the cause of the light falling on your eyes to the reason someone makes a face at you.
Tricky topics
In his paper on the same subject, Anil Seth of the University of Sussex in Brighton, UK, asks if this predictive ability could be the "single principle by which neural operations can account for perception, cognition, action, and even consciousness".
But there are far trickier topics from completely unfamiliar names. Again, this is another strength of Open MIND: giving a voice to those who haven't always had the chance to be heard.
So watch out for the wilder shores in papers by the younger researchers, such as the disturbing-sounding "Carving the Brain At Its Joints" by Axel Kohler of the University of Osnabruck, Germany, or the nigh-incomprehensible question posed by Kathinka Evers of the University of Uppsala, Sweden – "Can We Be Epigenetically Proactive?"
It is too early to tell just how influential this effort will be. But it has to be worthwhile alone for the fact that it's an open-access resource to some of the cutting-edge thinking about the nature of the mind, consciousness and the brain, targeted especially at countries like India, China and Brazil, where people may otherwise be unable to afford such material. And for the interested lay reader, it's a resource to dip in and out of.
But remember to bring oodles of patience, because despite the editors and authors' best intentions, it's not bedtime reading!
Anil Ananthaswamy is a consultant for New Scientist
Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26862-keeping-an-open-mind-about-consciousness-research.html#.VMifWSxEtqB
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
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A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
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2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
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2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
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2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
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