Shufflebrain

Setting philosophy aside, I am still unwilling to declare hologramic theory true. Do I believe the theory? Yes, of course, or I would not be writing a book about it. But belief has an irrational component built in. As a logic professor of mine used to insist, "The routes to certitude and certainty pass through different territories." The reader is entitled to find his or her own certitude. Science does not elevate its practitioners above mortality and fallibility, not even in judging the implications of scientific data. Only the writer with this thought in the prow of the mind may guide a reader to a brand new universe of understanding; and only as another mortal can I make shufflebrain a window on the hologramic mind.

Shufflebrain gives us sufficient reason to develop hologramic theory into a carefully reasoned system of propositions. After we deal with the theory in the abstract--where we can take it apart, where we can "see" the hologramic mind, where we can construct rational explanations of what we find in our world--then shufflebrain experiments will justify our putting hologramic theory to work.

And what uses it has! The theory explains observations about the brain that once defied explanation; it reconciles contradictory evidence that today alienates different groups of scientists into rigid, hostile, xenophobic camps; it gives the brain's architecture new significance; it sharpens the anatomist's mission. Hologramic theory, when fully developed, liberates us from the tyranny of reductionism and the pitfalls of trivialization. But the theory connects mind to the same Nature science has been studying all along. We take no magic carpet on our journey through this book.

Hologramic theory permits us to tour the vast ranges and reaches where minds abide; but this book only begins the tour.

Above all, hologramic theory provides a system in which human reason and imagination, coalesced, may comprehend and appreciate themselves. If, in some transcending design, the theory is false, it will still be of value. It is in this spirit that I offer it to the reader.

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The following chapter primarily deals with the mind-brain conundrum, or what the situation is like without a general theory. I found that if I chose examples carefully, I could in passing, present background about the brain that could be used later in the book. Selecting from the vast possibilities in the literature, I tried to pick examples that are interesting in their own right.

Chapter 3 surveys the hologram and its underlying principles. My intention is to provide the reader with enough theoretical background to deal with Chapters 4 through 6. There is a vast literature on holography, much of it not directly related to our discussion and not included in this book. The reader whose interests in this subject develop along the way will find various works listed in the bibliography, and most libraries contain excellent popular books on holography.

Why would any serious thinker even consider the hologram as a potential model of the brain? I try to answer this question in Chapter 4 with examples of how holograms mimic brain and mind functions. These examples illustrate how the hologram can be used in a casual way to conceptualize a surprising list of previously imponderable considerations about ourselves.

Chapters 5 and 6 describe my experiments on the brain. Having explored the possibilities of the hologram, and the theory, in earlier chapters we now need experimental evidence to justify further work on hologramic theory itself.

Chapter 7 is an introduction to the wave as a theoretical entity. In this chapter, we begin the process of determining the underlying propositions and principles we will need to formulate hologramic theory. In Chapter 8, we put our new rules and our recently acquired background knowledge to work, and by inductive reasoning we assemble hologramic theory, at least in the much simpler process of deduction, to explain the results of shufflebrain experiments and to take a "look" at the hypothetical hologramic mind. But in its simple form, hologramic theory is too reductionistic for our quest. In Chapter 9, therefore, we reformulate hologramic theory in the most general terms available. The result is a theoretical entity I call the "hologramic continuum." But hologramic theory, even in its general form, does not solve all existing problems in science. It will not, for instance, cure warts. The theory restricts itself, as we will be able to deduce in Chapter 9, but there is an ironic consequence awaiting us there.

Whereas Chapters 7 through 9 focus on mind, Chapter 10 returns to living organisms. Up to this point, we have been asking, "What is mind?" In Chapter 10, we pose the question, "What is brain?" The answers may surprise the reader. Chapter 10 also looks at a few interesting facts about the brain and behavior.