[FRIAM] consciousness conundrum

[thompnickson2 at gmail.com]

Glen has lumbered me down with an obligation to steelman every idea I find absurd, and so I feel obligated to try with this absurd idea of dual consciousness, a consciousness that acts, and a consciousness that decides to act.  I have always felt that some day you guys would help me do this.  So, ok, now?

 

So, let it be the case that we are a disorganized bunch of behavioral tendencies bundled up in a single body.  Now, one selection principle which follows from this model is that is not captured most of the time by one of these tendancies is likely to be less fit than one that is.  Dithering usually is selected against.  

 

Now what is the structure of a brain that mediates between them.  Well, it could just let them fight over control of the machinery.  But such battles might be costly.  Is there a better way.  

 

Well, let’s introduce a module whose job it is to extract is from such conflicts.  It has its own connections to crucial points in the competing systems.  It samples these systems and heads off conflict by making its own assessment of which system is going to win.  When assessment is made, attention is directed toward the parts of the world that lead to one of the two actions that the competing systems are advocating.  And that redirection is experienced as , Deciding to do x.  

 

I am sure you guys could easily write a computer that would both dither and have a separate dither-reduction system.  Kinda like sudden death overtime. 

 

Nick 

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

 <mailto:ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com> ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com

 <https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of Steve Smith
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2020 8:38 PM
To: friam at redfish.com
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] consciousness conundrum

 

I grew up with rodeo cowboys (ab)using "horse tranks" on themselves as much as on their horses (shoeing/trailering/etc.)   I never saw anyone "riding the k-pony" much less "in a k-hole" but that could easily have been masked by the pervasive alcohol (ab)use.   I didn't know this was Ketamine until later.   I heard the term "riding the k-pony" but not "k-hole"... probably a more modern term?

I did some work <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0167278984902598>  in the early 80's with an anesthesiologist who was full of anecdotes about how anesthesiology was still more an art than a science and his prime exhibit was a recently deprecated cocktail which A) induced paralysis; and B) yielded short-term amnesia.   The way they figured this out apparently was that a variation *also* included low levels of Ketamine... not enough to be the primary anesthetic, but to induce modest dissociation "on the way in and out" to reduce anxiety?  Those with the Ketamine-laced cocktail fared *much* better in recovery, as *apparently* the others were psychologically traumatized by the experience (imagine paralysis during surgery, even with amnesia), even though they didn't have any physical side effects.

My only personal experience with anesthesia was whilst having all 4 (impacted) wisdom teeth removed in my late teens.   I can't say I was present for the whole procedure, but I definitely remembered a LOT of details that I didn't think I should have experienced.  It was not traumatic, and I think it must have been the strongest experience I've had with dissociation.   I can't say it was particularly compelling in it's own right, but I am glad I had the experience.   By some extrapolation, I can imagine how such experiences could be in some way addictive.  It seems unlikely (for several reasons) that the anesthetic was Ketamine (early 1970s), but significantly dissociative.

I have a stronger sense of Dave's "X-consciousness being aware of ego-consciousness and it's fading"  in variations on lucid dreaming.   Of course my brain activity is not flatlined (I assume) in that mode.  I don't have out-of-body experiences but I do become an extreme "observer" of my own consciousness... I can't really parse that well...  other experiences with dreaming include what I interpret as a "post-hoc" fabricated "memory".   If something intrusive is happening in the world around my sleeping self, I am as likely as not to build an elaborate dream-story around the intrusion (sound, smell, cold, etc) which can feel like it lasts for *hours* when in fact, the intrusion may have been very short, sometimes all but instantaneous.  The dream-story "builds up to" the event as if with foreknowledge.    I interpret it as "post hoc fabrication".  Others report it as "foreknowledge".

If I had a k-pony, I suppose I would now have to name it "yoda".

- Steve

 

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