3. J. Bongard et al., «Resilient Machines Through Continuous SelfModeling,»
4. Ibid. In particular, see also free online support material at www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/…(See www.ccslmae.cornell.edu/ research/selfmodels/morepictures.htm for additional online material.)
5. See also Thomas Metzinger, «Empirical Perspectives from the SelfModel Theory of Subjectivity: A Brief Summary with Examples,» in Rahul Banerjee & Bikas K. Chakrabarti, eds.,
6. Karl Popper & J. C. Eccles,
7. It is interesting to note how perhaps the foremost theoretical «blind spot» of current philosophy of mind is conscious suffering. Thousands of pages have been written about color qualia and zombies, but almost no theoretical work is devoted to ubiquitous phenomenal states such as physical pain, boredom, or the everyday sadness known as subclinical depression. The same is true of panic, despair, shame, the conscious experience of mortality, and the phenomenology of losing one's dignity. Why are these forms of conscious content generally ignored by the best of today's philosophers of mind? Is it simple careerism («Nobody wants to read too much about suffering, no matter how insightful and important the arguments are»), or are there deeper, evolutionary reasons for this cognitive scotoma? When one examines the ongoing phenomenology of biological systems on our planet, the varieties of conscious suffering are at least as dominant as, say, the phenomenology of color vision or the capacity for conscious thought. The ability to consciously see color appeared only very recently, and the ability to consciously think abstract thoughts of a complex and ordered form arose only with the advent of human beings. Pain, panic, jealousy, despair, and the fear of dying, however, appeared millions of years earlier and in a much greater number of species.
CHAPTER 8
1. Our belief in invisible persons may have different roots, possibly including so-called hyperactive agent-detection devices (see D. Barrett, «Exploring the Natural Foundations of Religion,»
CHAPTER 9
1. Y. Kamitami & S. Shimojo, «Manifestation of Scotomas Created by Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of Human Visual Cortex,»
2. B.-P. Bejjani et al., «Transient Acute Depression Induced by HighFrequency Deep-Brain Stimulation,»
When asked why she was sad, she replied: «I'm tired. I want to hide in a corner. I'm crying over myself, of course. I'm hopeless, why am I bothering you.» Note that deep brain stimulation can also have just the opposite effect, namely, relief from serious, treatment-resistant depression. Here is a description: «All patients spontaneously reported acute effects including 'sudden calmness or lightness,' 'disappearance of the void,' 'sense of heightened awareness,' 'connectedness,' and sudden brightening of the room, including a sharpening of visual details and intensification of colors in response to stimulation.» See H. Mayberg, «Clinical Study: Deep Brain Stimulation for Treatment-Resistant Depression,»