How Can The Human Mind Occur In The Physical Universe

Author : John R. Anderson
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199741263
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.67/5 ( download)

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Download or read book How Can the Human Mind Occur in the Physical Universe? written by John R. Anderson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-08-28 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The question for me is how can the human mind occur in the physical universe. We now know that the world is governed by physics. We now understand the way biology nestles comfortably within that. The issue is how will the mind do that as well."--Allen Newell, December 4, 1991, Carnegie Mellon University The argument John Anderson gives in this book was inspired by the passage above, from the last lecture by one of the pioneers of cognitive science. Newell describes what, for him, is the pivotal question of scientific inquiry, and Anderson gives an answer that is emerging from the study of brain and behavior. Humans share the same basic cognitive architecture with all primates, but they have evolved abilities to exercise abstract control over cognition and process more complex relational patterns. The human cognitive architecture consists of a set of largely independent modules associated with different brain regions. In this book, Anderson discusses in detail how these various modules can combine to produce behaviors as varied as driving a car and solving an algebraic equation, but focuses principally on two of the modules: the declarative and procedural. The declarative module involves a memory system that, moment by moment, attempts to give each person the most appropriate possible window into his or her past. The procedural module involves a central system that strives to develop a set of productions that will enable the most adaptive response from any state of the modules. Newell argued that the answer to his question must take the form of a cognitive architecture, and Anderson organizes his answer around the ACT-R architecture, but broadens it by bringing in research from all areas of cognitive science, including how recent work in brain imaging maps onto the cognitive architecture.

Author : John Robert Anderson
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 9781435620322
Total Pages : 301 pages
Book Rating : 4.21/5 ( download)

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Download or read book How Can the Human Mind Occur in the Physical Universe? written by John Robert Anderson and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The argument John Anderson illustrates in this book was inspired by the last lecture given by one of the pioneers of cognitive science, Alan Newell. Newell describes what, for him, is the pivotal question of scientific inquiry, and Anderson gives an answer that emerges from the study of brain and behaviour.

Author : Morton M. Hunt
Publisher : Simon & Schuster
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 424 pages
Book Rating : 4.79/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Universe Within written by Morton M. Hunt and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 1982 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interviews with scientists in the forefront of research and discovery in the workings of the mind underlie an examination of the brain's evolution, physiology, and functions and of thought processes, problem solving, and creativity.

Author : Alan Lightman
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0593081323
Total Pages : 209 pages
Book Rating : 4.27/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Probable Impossibilities written by Alan Lightman and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2022-04-19 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The acclaimed author of Einstein’s Dreams tackles "big questions like the origin of the universe and the nature of consciousness ... in an entertaining and easily digestible way” (Wall Street Journal) with a collection of meditative essays on the possibilities—and impossibilities—of nothingness and infinity, and how our place in the cosmos falls somewhere in between. Can space be divided into smaller and smaller units, ad infinitum? Does space extend to larger and larger regions, on and on to infinity? Is consciousness reducible to the material brain and its neurons? What was the origin of life, and can biologists create life from scratch in the lab? Physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, whom The Washington Post has called “the poet laureate of science writers,” explores these questions and more—from the anatomy of a smile to the capriciousness of memory to the specialness of life in the universe to what came before the Big Bang. Probable Impossibilities is a deeply engaged consideration of what we know of the universe, of life and the mind, and of things vastly larger and smaller than ourselves.

Author : George Ellis
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 366249809X
Total Pages : 482 pages
Book Rating : 4.95/5 ( download)

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Download or read book How Can Physics Underlie the Mind? written by George Ellis and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-05-31 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Physics underlies all complexity, including our own existence: how is this possible? How can our own lives emerge from interactions of electrons, protons, and neutrons? This book considers the interaction of physical and non-physical causation in complex systems such as living beings, and in particular in the human brain, relating this to the emergence of higher levels of complexity with real causal powers. In particular it explores the idea of top-down causation, which is the key effect allowing the emergence of true complexity and also enables the causal efficacy of non-physical entities, including the value of money, social conventions, and ethical choices.

Author : James C. Austin
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1527544966
Total Pages : 457 pages
Book Rating : 4.63/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Disembodied Mind written by James C. Austin and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2020-01-06 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since classical times we have seen considerable progress in our understanding of the physical world through the disciplines of science. However, when it comes to the mind and its most palpable property, consciousness, we have difficulty attempting any kind of meaningful discussion. Can material things be conscious, or is the mind entirely separate from physics? If we insist on the latter, how does the mind relate to the physical world? Relying more on evidence rooted in the empirical sciences than on standard philosophical arguments, this book disseminates a persuasive and self-consistent model implying an objective mind completely unconnected with anything physical. Moreover it means that the mind has no effect on the physical domain, but, by free volition, is able to navigate its way through a myriad of configurations that constitute the world we experience.

Author : Stephen Wolfram
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780713991161
Total Pages : 1197 pages
Book Rating : 4.6X/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A New Kind of Science written by Stephen Wolfram and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 1197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work presents a series of dramatic discoveries never before made public. Starting from a collection of simple computer experiments---illustrated in the book by striking computer graphics---Wolfram shows how their unexpected results force a whole new way of looking at the operation of our universe. Wolfram uses his approach to tackle a remarkable array of fundamental problems in science: from the origin of the Second Law of thermodynamics, to the development of complexity in biology, the computational limitations of mathematics, the possibility of a truly fundamental theory of physics, and the interplay between free will and determinism.

Author : Ralph D. Ellis
Publisher : Open Court Publishing
ISBN 13 : 0812696638
Total Pages : 329 pages
Book Rating : 4.39/5 ( download)

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Download or read book How the Mind Uses the Brain written by Ralph D. Ellis and published by Open Court Publishing. This book was released on 2010 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The nature of consciousness and the relationship between the mind and brain have become the most hotly debated topics in philosophy. This book explains and argues for a new approach called enactivism. Enactivism maintains that consciousness and all subjective thoughts and feelings arise from an organism's attempts to use its environment in the service of purposeful action. The authors admit that their perspective presents many problems: How does one distinguish real action from reaction? Is it scientifically acceptable to say that the whole organism can use its parts, instead of being a mere summation of their separate mechanical reactions? What about the danger that this analysis will imply that physical systems fail to be "causally closed"? How the Mind Uses the Brain tries to answer these questions and represents a sharp break with tradition, arguing that consciousness and emotions are aspects of an organism's ongoing self-organizational activity, driving information-processing rather than merely responding to it.

Author : Lynn Margulis
Publisher : Chelsea Green Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1603580379
Total Pages : 386 pages
Book Rating : 4.73/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Mind, Life and Universe written by Lynn Margulis and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2007-08-15 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nearly forty of the world's most esteemed scientists discuss the big questions that drive their illustrious careers. Co-editor Eduardo Punset—one of Spain's most loved personages for his popularization of the sciences—interviews an impressive collection of characters drawing out the seldom seen personalities of the world's most important men and woman of science. In Mind, Life and Universe they describe in their own words the most important and fascinating aspects of their research. Frank and often irreverent, these interviews will keep even the most casual reader of science books rapt for hours. Can brain science explain feelings of happiness and despair? Is it true that chimpanzees are just like us when it comes to sexual innuendo? Is there any hard evidence that life exists anywhere other than on the Earth? Through Punset's skillful questioning, readers will meet one scientist who is passionate about the genetic control of everything and another who spends her every waking hour making sure African ecosystems stay intact. The men and women assembled here by Lynn Margulis and Eduardo Punset will provide a source of endless interest. In captivating conversations with such science luminaries as Jane Goodall, James E. Lovelock, Oliver Sachs, and E. O. Wilson, Punset reveals a hidden world of intellectual interests, verve, and humor. Science enthusiasts and general readers alike will devour Mind, Life and Universe, breathless and enchanted by its truths.

Author : Matthew M. Radmanesh
Publisher : AuthorHouse
ISBN 13 : 1425916007
Total Pages : 420 pages
Book Rating : 4.08/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Cracking the Code of Our Physical Universe written by Matthew M. Radmanesh and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2006-05-30 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What sets this book apart is the fact that it is not just another science book describing scientific facts and phenomena! It would surely be redundant since that task has been done many times over with much more elegant prose and brighter narrators. In this book, for the first time we have undertaken the task of breaking the code of any piece of matter or natural phenomena; whether it is an atom, a quantum occurance, a planet, a galaxy, or any other perceivable thing. It covers any natural phenomena ever discovered or one that will be unravelled by the future pioneers in their respective fields. This book provides the trail map of any and all things that man has discovered and shows how their codes were cracked. The list of discoveries is endless but prominent amongst them are the discovery of fire, elecricity, magnetism, laws of motion, the solar system and planets, so on and so forth. This book goes beyond just pure science since it fuses philosophy with science. It actually makes science a subset of philosophy, or more precisely, applied philosophy. Just like the light phenomenon, which was made to be a subset of the field of electricity by James Clerk Maxwell, revolutionizing our technical world, so does this book by bringing a new era of incredible developments for mankind!