March 11, 2015
Today we will review what we've talked about so far, and begin to explore the intersection of neuroscience with our conscious experiences and understanding of the world.
The path of the class is not linear, because the subject matter is not linear! However, a simplified linear presentation might look like this:
Part 1: Argument for Free Will
Part 2: Patterns of the Direction of Evolution
Part 3: Desire! Revisiting How the Brain Works
The argument for free will is based on our conscious capacity to change the direction of our attention. The idea of consciousness as composed of awareness as a noun and attention as a verb, a potentially willful representation of awareness is the mechanism available for free will.
The argument for free will hinges on the logic that the demonstration of "free will" is a long-term endeavor. Free will demonstrates itself in the consistent direction of energy towards a coherent end in a way that strategically acts to imagine and design environments and conditions that allow for transformation of the unconscious or pre-conscious operations of the brain. This is circular, because it is the 10,000,000 bites per second of pre-conscious activity that generate the 40 bites per second consciousness. Free will is a intentional leveraging. Ants carry many times their own body weight. Humans cooperatively leverage their unconscious through strategic imagination and design.
Below is the snapshot of our first whiteboard. The 2nd one included the humorous (but pessimistic) "three laws of thermodynamics":
1. You can't win.
2. You can't even break even.
3. You must play the game.
As annotated, our class discussion took a decidedly positive course. It is positive because we practice being positive!
The path of the class is not linear, because the subject matter is not linear! However, a simplified linear presentation might look like this:
Part 1: Argument for Free Will
Part 2: Patterns of the Direction of Evolution
Part 3: Desire! Revisiting How the Brain Works
The argument for free will is based on our conscious capacity to change the direction of our attention. The idea of consciousness as composed of awareness as a noun and attention as a verb, a potentially willful representation of awareness is the mechanism available for free will.
The argument for free will hinges on the logic that the demonstration of "free will" is a long-term endeavor. Free will demonstrates itself in the consistent direction of energy towards a coherent end in a way that strategically acts to imagine and design environments and conditions that allow for transformation of the unconscious or pre-conscious operations of the brain. This is circular, because it is the 10,000,000 bites per second of pre-conscious activity that generate the 40 bites per second consciousness. Free will is a intentional leveraging. Ants carry many times their own body weight. Humans cooperatively leverage their unconscious through strategic imagination and design.
Below is the snapshot of our first whiteboard. The 2nd one included the humorous (but pessimistic) "three laws of thermodynamics":
1. You can't win.
2. You can't even break even.
3. You must play the game.
As annotated, our class discussion took a decidedly positive course. It is positive because we practice being positive!