Get It Now A Universe Of Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination Written By Gerald M. Edelman Released Through EPub

book, even beingyears out of date, is far beyond the comprehension of manyst Century readers, I know I struggled. A lot. What goes on in our head when we have a thought Why do the physical events that occur inside a fistful of gelatinous tissue give rise to the world of conscious experience In The Universe of Consciousness , Gerald Edelman and Giulio Tononi present for the first time a fullscale theory of consciousness based on direct observation of the human brain in action.
Their pioneering work, presented here in an elegant style, challenges much of the conventional wisdom about consciousness, The Universe of Consciousness has enormous implications for our understanding of language, thought, emotion, and mental illness, This is an extremely dense read containing many concepts that might require several iterations before becoming fully comprehensible, However, the book is fascinating and exercises good scientific judgment while navigating one of the greatest mysteries of our time, Neurobiology of consciousness

This is an excellent review of consciousness from the neurobiological point of view, Consciousness has been an interesting topic for study not only for neurobiologists but also for philosophers and physicists, Although consciousness is a highly debated topic because of its close interaction with matter in space and time, it is certainly least understood subject as it is at the borderline of physics, philosophy and neurobiology.
Some quantum physicists argue that it is a universal field like space, time or energy, but consciousness does not figure in equations or any mathematical calculations.
Secondly consciousness is found only in living beings and not in inanimate objects: Particularly animals that have brain and central nervous system.
The book is summarized as follows:

Three working assumptions are made as methodological platformthe physics assumption conventional physical processes are required to explain consciousness or the conscious experience,the evolutionary assumption consciousness is evolved by natural selection in the animal systems, andqualia assumption the subjective, qualitative aspects of consciousness, being private, cannot be communicated directly through a scientific theory.
The authors do not attempt to explain many forms of perception, imagery, thought, emotion, mood, attention, will, or selfconsciousness, Instead, they concentrate on certain fundamental properties of consciousness that are shared by every conscious states, such as the unity of a conscious state experienced as a whole and cannot be subdivided into independent components, and the informativeness, i.
e. , where a conscious state is selected from a repertoire of billions of possible conscious states, each with different behavioral consequences within a fraction of a second.
The basic assumption in all this is that consciousness is a process that is private, selective, and continually changing, It is strictly a process, and not belonging to a particular section of brain, This means that consciousness is associated with biological structures that produce dynamic processes, Thus both morphology and consciousness are the products of evolutionary selection natural selection, This assumption about the evolutionary origin of consciousness avoids fruitless efforts to relate consciousness to computer logic or the effect of quantum gravity on neurons or a pure quantum physical process while diminishing the role of brain.


Neural substrates of consciousness involve large populations of neurons and no single area of brain is responsible for conscious experience.
As the task to be learned is practiced and its performance becomes more and more mechanical then the learning task fades from the memory and the regions for this task becomes smaller.
Conscious experience is associated with changes of activity patterns occurring simultaneously in many regions of brain i, e. , activation and inactivation of a population of neurons, It is not how many neurons are active but it is the distribution of groups of neurons that can engage in strong and rapid reentrant interactions.
Further more, the activity patterns of rapidly interacting groups must be constantly changing and sufficiently differentiated from each other: This is called Dynamic Core Hypothesis.
Consciousness is an extraordinarily differentiated, At any given time, we experience a particular conscious state selected out of billions of possible states, each of which can lead to different behavioral consequences.
The occurrence of a particular conscious state is therefore highly informative in the specific sense that information is the reduction of uncertainty among a number of alternatives.
If this is the case the neural processes underlying the conscious experience must also be highly differentiated and informative,

Memory is a central brain mechanism that leads to consciousness, Memory does not store inscription or information in any format, In higher organisms it is an act of creation for every act of perception, and every act of memory is an act of imagination.
The primary consciousness has the ability to construct an integrated mental scene in the present that does not require language or true sense of self.
The integrated neural scene depends on

both perceptual categorization of incoming sensor stimuli the present and its interaction with categorical memories the past.
The neural mechanisms distinguish primary consciousness and higher order consciousness, Primary consciousness is found in human as well as some higher order animals, but these lack language, analytical skill, and limited symbolic semantic capabilities.
Still they are capable of constructing a mental scene, The higherorder consciousness found in humans has semantic capability and linguistic capability in most advanced form which provides a sense of self and the ability to construct past and future.
The author' main contention is that the consciousness arose from evolutionary innovations in the morphology of the brain and body, The mind arises from the body and its development, Much of the discussion by the authors are theoretical in nature and needs extensive experimental evidences to support this theory,
Tο βιβλίο αυτό αναλύει την λειτουργίες του εγκεφάλου σχετικά με το νευρωνικό σύστημα και τις διεργασίες που επιτελούνται μέχρι να φτάσουμε στο επίπεδο να μιλάμε για αυτό που ονομάζουμε ltltενσυνείδητη εμπειρίαgtgt. Οι συγγραφείς του βιβλίου από ότι κατάλαβα υποστηρίζουν πως η συνείδηση ως μια συνεχόμενη διεργασίας και όχι ένα μόνο "πράγμα". Προτείνουν το μοντέλο του δυναμικού πυρήνα όπως το ονομάζουν.

ltlt Μια ομάδα νευρώνων μπορεί να συμβάλει άμεσα στην ενσυνείδητη εμπειρία μόνο αν είναι μέρος μιας εκτεταμένης λειτουργικής συστοιχίας η οποία , μέσω αλληλεπιδράσεων επανόδου στο θαλαμοφλοιικό σύστημα, επιτυγχάνει υψηλό βαθμό ενοποίησης σε χρονικό διάστημα μερικών εκατοντάδων msec gtgt

Νομίζω πως το βιβλίο δεν απευθύνεται στον μέσο αναγνώστη βιβλίων εκλαϊκευμένης επιστήμης, Όσο και να επιμένεις σε κάποια κομμάτι απλά δεν γίνεται να καταλάβεις τι λέει αν δεν έχεις κάποια σχέση με τον χώρο των νευροεπιστημών. TOUCHING THE LIGHT AT THE EDGE OF EVERYTHING

Within a single human brain the number of potential circuits are far greater than the number of molecules in the Universe.
And from this chaotic complexity emerges an experience most of us are aware of but are hardly able to contain into words: Consciousness.
From philosophers and psychologists to engineers and physicists, everyone seems to have some idea on how to approach this elusive subject.
However, since this is a brainbased activity, it is the neurobiological approach that, in the end, is more luckily to bear tangible fruits.


As above, so below: this mystical Hermetic axiom seems to be the key to unlocking Edelman's approach, Evolution and natural selection seems to apply not only to the level of organisms but also to memory systems, Edelman shared a Nobel prize infor his work on the evolving immune system, He then used a similar approach to tackle the mystery of our minds,

Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination is not an easy book, It is dense with concepts and it will require the reader's full attention and dedication, Edelman's older theories Neuronal Darwinism and Biological Consciousness are presented in brief but not explained in depth for that I would recommend his older book The Remembered Present: A Biological Theory of Consciousness.
On the other hand, this book is not limited to specialists dedicated enthusiasts can still get the most out of it.
Itspages are organized in seventeen chapters with full bibliography and index,

As memory and consciousness are also my foci of study and research papers alone rarely offer the big picture!, I have read most of the books on the subject, from Dennet's Consciousness Explained to Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind.
However, I find the biological approach to be the most promising,

After all, any physicist or philosopher still has to use his brain to comprehend how his mind is interacting with the Universe.
And until we are able to grasp, at least, the framing dimensions of our inner Universe, scientific progress is bound to be as conditional and ritualistic as ancient stargazing.
Hard to rate. Undoubtedly a seminal work. But what could be expected, the book falls in the unfortunate range of 'too old for valuable scientific insight' and 'too new for historical perspectives'.
From a neuroscientist perspective.