Seeing Reviews

[bluegargantua]

Hi,

The other day I finished off Seeing Red: A Study in Consciousness by Nicholas Humphrey. It's a slim volume in which the author (a psychologist and philosopher) attempts to explain what consciousness is and how it may have evolved in humans and what it's good for.

Y'know, nothing major.

His basic thrust is that when you see a red screen, two things happen:

1.) You perceive the existence of the red screen.
2.) You experience the red screen (you are "redding" as he puts it).

These two things happen instantaneously and independently of each other. And it's in the experiencing of the red that consciousness arises.

Like any good scientist, he's happy to point out where his model has been attacked (and his counter-arguments). He doesn't fully present a range of competing viewpoints, but I think he can be forgiven that. Certainly he builds a compelling case.

This has been a nice non-fiction supplement to Blindsight and Permanence and despite being a quick read, there's a lot to think about. I don't know if this resolves or exacerbates my existential crisis, but it was a good read nonetheless.

later
Tom

Comments

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

Just wait until your consciousness gets copied onto a chip, and they accidentally leave your body alive when they're completing the transition, and you end up being two copies of yourself... that's when the fun starts.

[bluegargantua]

The chip me will either be an incredibly asshole or so patently patronizing I'll have to pull the plug on it.

Tom

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

"Well, you're a dick."

"I think you mean *we're* a dick."

"Hm, yes. I guess that's the end of us then."

"And see, normally we'd be in complete agreement with us, except that my we is me, and your we is you. But we suppose we'd do the same thing if we were us."

"Asshole." *YANK*

[jeffwik.livejournal.com]

I want to make a joke along the lines of "does it also happen when you aren't looking at a red screen," or "does it work for other color screens besides red ones," but it's not happening.

[bluegargantua]

the problem with those jokes are:

a.) Sometimes, yes.
b.) Yes, but your probably don't "red" if you look at (for example) a blue screen.

later
Tom

[methanopyrus.livejournal.com]

it happens when you remember a red screen because you experience it and percieve it all from the top down. fun!

[imvfd.livejournal.com]

If you'd like something that's a bit heavier, anything by Daniel C. Dennett might do it for you. In a nutshell, you just think you're conscious but that's simply and illusion (ok ok, I'm not doing the guy justice but that's fairly close to his position).

[bluegargantua]

And that's kinda what the guy in the book points towards. These sensations kind of "echo" and in the process it makes the present not just moment to moment, but a thicker "blob" of time that let's you reflect on past, present, and future all at once, thus giving rise to Self.

Further, by making the Self seem special and important, you think of yourself and special and important and you use consciousness to do impressive, long-term things like build cities, grow crops and the like.

later
Tom

[methanopyrus.livejournal.com]

but we are all just "blobs" for real

[dirkcjelli.livejournal.com]

careful with saying X is "just" Y... depending on how you meant it, that is the reductionist falacy.

eg... suppose you completely understand the neurochemistry/psychology etc of love and sex... this does not, at least for the majority of researchers who have an incomplete understanding in that direction, destroy one's capability to experience love and sex. Also see Feynman's appreciation of the flower (1 min, 30 sec):