The letter below summarizes the point I reached in my efforts
from about `65 to `80 to understand
the foundation of consciousness
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\/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/
Bob Armstrong{p PRNTfn PRNTfn' BMPRNTh12 '}
Coherent Systems, Inc 288 Vine Ave
42 Peck Slip Highland Park, IL 60035
New York, NY 10038.1725
212.285.1864 CmpSrv:70421,2425 Fax by Arrangement
{ PRNTfn P }
Patrick Young , Editor
Science News | LIB |>| C:COSY
1719 N St , NW | JOB |>| ScienceNews:ConsciousnessLtr92ë10ë31
Washington DC 20036 | DDT |>| SAT.OCT,1992ë10ë31,0:56
202-785-2255
Dear Edtior ,
As a new subscriber , I`m encouraged to see Bruce Bower`s review ( SN:
92ë10ë10&17 ) of recent work on comprehending consciousness since I spent
the `70s in grad school pursuing that problem . I think the scientific
understanding of this 'relation which relates itself to its own self' as
Kierkegaard put it , will continue to be a central challenge even when we
are constructing 'Lt. Commander Data's and knowing on theoretical grounds
that they are conscious .
Let me present a few conclusions from my own trek :
Consciousness clearly must arise from the spatiotemporal structure of
brains` information flows. The mathematics required for its understanding
starts with multidimensional geometry . Christopher Zeeman in the early
`60s pointed out that the state of the approximately 10E14 neurons in the
brain can be described as a point in a 10E14 dimensional cube and the path
of consciousness determined by the path of that point down gradients of
attraction . A second thread needed in the knot is the mathematics of
associative memory which was already becoming rather well understood when I
was in school . Dennis Gabor , the father of holography himself , wrote a
couple of the most sucinct and insightful articles about it .
So , with the mathematics of memory in hand , and with the conceptual tools
to deal with the entire patterns of activity of the brain at once , can we
form a first hypothesis about the foundation of consciousness ?
I concluded it may arise from a folding in time of the brain`s patterns of
activity back upon themselves creating a singularity in time and space - an
interval of mutual awareness .
The Hippocampus appears to have the appropriate structure for spreading its
information flows out in time , and to be clinically related to the
phenomenon of consciousness . //
Yours Truly , |SUN.NOV,1992ë11ë1,22:38
Bob Armstrong
\PatrickYoung,Editor;202-785-2255 ;Science News /1719 N St , NW /Washington
DC 20036
while the contingencies of existance |SAT.OCT,1992ë10ë31,4:25
Sending Mon 11ë2
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|12:49| sending Cancel w N: I see no reason to pay for people`s writings
who don`t appreciate mine | dreg : I judge magazienes largly by their ltrs
Col . |12:58|