[FRIAM] How to Repurpose Your Old Gadgets Step away from the trash bin!

[Russ Abbott]

Does anyone think there is anything to this
<https://neurosciencenews.com/electromagnetic-consciousness-17191/>?

Electromagnetic energy in the brain enables brain matter to create our
consciousness and our ability to be aware and think, according to a new
theory developed by Professor Johnjoe McFadden from the University of
Surrey.

When neurons in the brain and nervous system fire, they not only send the
familiar electrical signal down the wire-like nerve fibres, but they also
send a pulse of electromagnetic energy into the surrounding tissue. Such
energy is usually disregarded, yet it carries the same information
as nerve firings, but as an immaterial wave of energy, rather than a flow
of atoms in and out of the nerves.

This electromagnetic field is well-known and is routinely detected by
brain-scanning techniques such as electroencephalogram (EEG) and
magnetoencephalography (MEG) but has previously been dismissed as
irrelevant to brain function. Instead, McFadden proposes that the brain’s
information-rich electromagnetic field is in fact itself the seat of
consciousness, driving ‘free will’ and voluntary actions.

This new theory also accounts for why, despite their immense complexity and
ultra-fast operation, today’s computers have not exhibited the slightest
spark of consciousness; however, with the right technical development,
robots that are aware and can think for themselves could become a reality.

Johnjoe McFadden, Professor of Molecular Genetics and Director of the
Quantum Biology Doctoral Training Centre at the University of Surrey, said:
“How brain matter becomes aware and manages to think is a mystery that has
been pondered by philosophers, theologians, mystics and ordinary people for
millennia. I believe this mystery has now been solved, and
that consciousness is the experience of nerves plugging into the brain’s
self-generated electromagnetic field to drive what we call ‘free will’ and
our voluntary actions.”


I'm especially concerned about the final sentence that claims that
consciousness is *the experience* of nerves plugging into the brain's
electromagnetic field.

That seems to assume what it's trying to explain. Even if all the rest of
it makes sense (and I'm not in a position to judge), what does it mean for
nerves to "experience" anything? Isn't that the issue to be explained?


-- Russ Abbott
Professor, Computer Science
California State University, Los Angeles
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