So anyway, in the blog I mention--due to these futuristic things--that the last chapter of my book in 1987 about micotubules, called Ultimate Computing, is called "The Future of Consciousness, and I talk about downloading consciousness into an array of microtubules. It would be limited in size and therefore intensity and ability only by gravity. So if it were in zero gravity in orbit in space, then the array could be near infinite in terms of consciousness and intelligence. So they were talking about space habitats to save humanity when the earth goes under. And I say, well, if you want to be efficient about it, the body's going to grow old anyway, why not just save consciousness, if you can download it indeed. So I reprinted this chapter, and it's on that blog. So if you go to the Lifeboat Foundation, just look for my blog called "A Lifeboat for Consciousness.
BD: So in terms of blocking consciousness so that only the neurocomputational aspect remains--
SH: Well I think we do with anesthesia, basically.
SH: Well, I think we all can do that at times, actually. Like when I'm driving to work, I'm daydreaming about something, and I'm driving perfectly safely, but I'm not really conscious of the road. My mind's elsewhere. So I think we're all zombies when we are operating on auto-pilot, except that our consciousness still exists, just occupied elsewhere.
But if you're asking at what
level of evolution does consciousness appear, below which there is no
consciousness and living creatures are zombies, I wrote a chapter
about that. It's on my website. It's called "Did
Consciousness Cause the Cambrian Evolutionary Explosion?
There was this huge burst of evolution like 500 million years ago,
and they don't really know what caused it. And the organisms at the
beginning were like these small worms and urchins, similar to urchins
and worms we have today--actinosphaerium and C. elegans,
actually, an urchin and a worm.
We know these organisms have
about 300 neurons in the case of the C. elegans. And in the case of
the actinosphaerium, it doesn't have neurons, it has axonemes, and
they have ironically almost the exact same number of microtubules as
the worm's neurons. So I think that is maybe when consciousness
first started, precipitating the evolutionary explosion.
But I think consciousness is a sequence
of conscious moments which are a kind of spectrum, like photons. So
you can have high frequency, high intensity, low wavelength moments
versus low intensity, slower, less frequent events. Kind of like
infrared versus ultraviolet photons, for example. At the low end,
even an electron, if it was in quantum superposition and isolated,
would have a conscious moment, but it would take 10 million years. On
the other end, human brains can have them 40-80 to 100 times a
second, even more. So it's a trick of isolating the superposition
and allowing it to evolve and reach threshold for Penrose objective
reduction/OR which is what causes consciousness..
Primitive
organisms have some rudimentary consciousness, but not a whole lot of
intelligence. But I don't think intelligence is really related to
consciousness very much at all. We're intelligent, and we have
consciousness. But if you're having an overwhelming toothache,
there's not a lot of complex intelligence in that. It's just pure
qualia. It's pure consciousness--of a very negative kind. You can
also have blissful consciousness, that's positive, that's really
devoid of content. In fact, meditators strive for that. So I think
intelligence and consciousness are certainly not the same thing. But
on the other hand, consciousness enhances intelligence.
BD:
Right, so you could have a primitive organism that has consciousness
but not a lot of intelligence. Or you could have a sophisticated
computer that has a lot of intelligence but not consciousness.
SH:
Exactly.
BD: Have there been any experiments done, or could
there be any done conceivably, in which they took an organism that
would normally have consciousness, like a mouse, and turned it into a
"zombie by blocking those factors that are responsible for
consciousness but not neurocomputation--either through drugs, or gene
manipulation, or whatever? And how would that effect the organisms
behavior?
SH: I think they may have done it
already. The conscious pilot model is about gamma synchrony moving
around the brain. And if we're right, it moves through gap
junctions. So they did these knockout mice, where they knocked-out
the gene for connection 36, the main gap junction protein. And the
mice survived exhibited behavior. But they were cognitively impaired.
They weren't as smart. So in some sense, consciousness does feed
back on intelligence. They do behave, and they function, and they
have cognitive abilities. But no gamma synchrony. And maybe they're
zombie mice.
BD: So if they are lacking consciousness, it
would seem that without it, behaviorally they can still do the same
sort of procedures, but they're not quite as sharp. They're
lacking some sort of creativity or something.
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