Phi : a voyage from the brain to the soul /
"From a neurologist whose work offers one of the most promising paths to unraveling the mystery of consciousness, an exploration of consciousness unlike any other. Somehow our soul, our consciousness, our world, all is generated by what's inside our skull. This is the essential question of...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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New York :
Pantheon,
[2012]
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| Edition: | First edition. |
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Table of Contents:
- The Dream of Galileo
- Part I: Evidence: Experiments of Nature
- Introduction: Displacements
- Cerebrum: In which is shown that the corticothalamic system generates consciousness
- Cerebellum: In which is shown that the cerebellum, while having more neurons than the cerebrum, does not generate consciousness
- Two Blind Painters: In which is shown that sensory inputs and pathways are not necessary for consciousness
- A Brain Locked In: In which is shown that motor outputs and pathways are not necessary for consciousness, nor are they sufficient
- Empress Without Memory: In which is shown that many brain circuits that help us see, hear, remember, speak, and act are not necessary for consciousness
- A Brain Split: In which is shown that consciousness is divided if the brain is split
- A Brain Conflicted: In which is said that consciousness can split if different regions of the brain refuse to talk to each other
- A Brain Possessed: In which is shown that when cortical neurons fire strongly and synchronously, as during certain seizures, consciousness fades
- A Brain Asleep: In which is shown that when cortical neurons can be on and off only together, as during dreamless sleep, consciousness fades
- Part II: Theory: Experiments of Thought
- Introduction: The Enigma of Consciousness
- Galileo and the Photodiode: In which is shown that the humble photodiode can tell light from dark as well as Galileo
- Information: The Manifold Repertoire: In which is shown that the repertoire of possible experiences is as large as one can imagine
- Galileo and the Camera: In which is shown that the sensor of a digital camera has a large repertoire of possible states, perhaps larger than Galileo’s
- Integrated Information: The Many and the One: In which is shown that consciousness lives where information is integrated by a single entity above and beyond its parts
- Galileo and the Bat: In which is feared that the quality of experience cannot be derived from matter
- Seeing Dark (Deconstructing Darkness): In which is said that darkness does not exist in a void but requires a context
- The Meaning of Dark (Constructing Darkness): In which is shown that darkness is built of many nested mechanisms that specify what it is not
- The Palace of Light: In which is shown that an experience is a shape made of integrated information
- The Garden of Qualia: In which is said that the universe is mostly dark, but the largest stars are closer than one thinks, if they are looked at with the proper instrument
- Part III: Implications: A Universe of Consciousness
- Introduction: Sparks and Flames
- Nightfall I: Death: In which is said that, if consciousness is integrated information, it dissolves with death
- Nightfall II: Dementia: In which is said that consciousness disintegrates with dementia
- Nightfall III: Dolor: In which is said that, if the quality of consciousness is a shape made of integrated information, it can be turned into the only real and eternal Hell
- Twilight I: Consciousness Diminished: In which is said that consciousness can be present in the absence of language and reflection
- Twilight II: Consciousness Evolving: In which is said that animals are conscious, too
- Twilight III: Consciousness Developing: In which is said that consciousness must be present, to some degree, even before birth
- Daylight I: Consciousness Exploring: In which is said that, by investigating nature, new qualia are discovered
- Daylight II: Consciousness Imagining: In which is said that art and imagination invent new shapes within the mind
- Daylight III: Consciousness Growing: In which is said that, by growing consciousness, the universe comes more into being, the synthesis of one and many
- Epilogue: Three Late Dreams
- Afterthoughts: Study questions.