Carl Jung, in a portion of “Man and His Symbols” (Jung, 1964) related memory an consciousness, or more appropriately, dual consciousness, by stating that a memory, when no longer available, has entered one’s unconscious. In a way, this is a very early relation of memory and consciousness. Seager & Sean, in a discussion of panpsychism for Stanford’s Encyclopedia of philosophy, discussed William Lycan’s view that consciousness is the ability to monitor information. Panpsychism, is akin to animism and other philosophical and religious views, where somehow, matter is alive. In panpsychism, as the name suggests, mind is the prevalent aspect of the universe, among the alternate views that cluster around the term panpsychism, one would be that there is only mind, and thoughts, which we see as objects, making up the universe (Seager &Sean , 2013). Rationally it may be easy to scoff at these kind of ideas, but rationality is different than logic, a rational universe wouldn’t be saddle shaped, and matter and energy would be distinct, but our logic has taken us beyond what our biological foibles would lead us to believe (Bennet, Donahue, Schnieder , & Voit,2012). Some scientist and lay people are intrigued counter rational findings in quantum physics, and what the implications are, as Seager and Sean(2013) explain, our humanity, consciousness, can be described on the enigmas of quantum mechanics : “It is then highly suggestive that one of the central features of quantum mechanics is the existence of informational but non-causal relations between elements of systems. These relations are non-causal insofar as they are modulated instantaneously over any distance and do not involve the transfer of energy between the parts of the system. But they are informational in the sense that the changes of state of one part of the system seems in some way to be communicated to the other. There is no doubt whatsoever that such quantum systems can exist (they have been created in the laboratory) although the interpretation of them in terms of information exchange is contentious. For example, it is possible to create pairs of photons with correlated polarization states, such that, while neither photon is in a definite state of polarization prior to measurement, they must be discovered to be in opposite polarization states when a measurement takes place, no matter how far apart they are when the measurements occur. Such correlated particles are said to be “entangled”. It does not seem unreasonable to regard two such entangled photons as effectively monitoring each others state of polarization. We can then use a theory of consciousness such as Lycans to argue that a little monitoring makes for a little bit of consciousness. Furthermore, while entangled states are normally very delicate and susceptible to “decoherence” caused by environmental disturbance, there might be certain systems that can resist decoherence and it has been conjectured that these systems are the physical foundation of more complex states of consciousness (see Hameroff and Penrose 1996; Hameroff, at least, is willing to entertain a panpsychist interpretation of this work). To follow this line of thought even further, the decoherence argument evidently collapses for the universe as a whole, which by definition cannot be disturbed by any outside force, so presumably the total universe is in one immensely complex entangled state. Given a link between consciousness, monitoring and information exchange, this leads to a view highly reminiscent of Leibnizs monadology, with centres of (perhaps rudimentary) consciousness, or at least mind, at the foundation of the world.” Psychological research has looked for a place, under the term “Cartesian theater” after the writings of Rene Descartes, where the simple physical, chemical and electric, elements of brain activity, and the various networks of the mind/brain, are available as consciousness (Petre, 2012). Extending the information monitoring example of consciousness above, I imagine the Cartesian theater to be an image world, where inner and outer data, or sensory input, and internal cognitions, are monitored, or attended to. I don’t know that this view has direct bearing on memory, then again, since all information that is cognitively elaborated may simultaneously be encoded, (Terry,2009 ) , maybe memory is often part of consciousness, but that may assert deep distinctions in normal consciousness, and some of the meditative states where practitioners claim to no longer think . Cherry (2013) writing for about . com psychology, gives this definition of consciousness : “awareness of your unique thoughts, memories, feelings, sensations and environment “ I like the definition of awareness, it covers all the things we associate with consciousness, whereas , attending, is more an act of cognitive will, and interplays directly with memory. Awareness is more universally applicable to consciousness. Thanks Mo Reference Bennet, Donahue, Schnieder, & Voit (2012) The Essential Cosmic Perspective, Boston Pearson Cherry (2013) What is Consciousness About . com Psychology retreived from psychology.about/od/statesofconsciousness/f/consciousness.htm Jung, C. G. (1964). Man and his symbols. London : Aldus Books in association with W.H. Allen Petr Bob,(2012) Consciousness, schizophrenia and complexity, Cognitive Systems Research, Volume 13, Issue 1, March 2012, Pages 87-94, ISSN 1389-0417, dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsys.2011.05.001. (sciencedirect/science/article/pii/S1389041711000362 Seager & Sean (2013) Panpsychism Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Edward N Zalta Ed. Retreieved from plato.stanford.edu/entries/panpsychism/ Terry (2009) Learning and Memory Boston Pearson
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 07:31:27 +0000
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