@doristsao@doristsao Are you aware of these cases? Because this finding leaves you with 2 options: either consciousness doesn't depend on the cortex, or these people aren't conscious
As peer review,this may have implication on your cortex-based approach. Thoughts?
https://t.co/ouqVV2ZMoP
@doristsao@EliSennesh@AsteraNeuro What about hydranencephaly patients who only have a brain stem, but are nonetheless very responsive and affective.
Are they not conscious? Or is the cortex not actually essential for generating consciousness.
@doristsao@AsteraNeuro Just read through this; I'm called by the mission but am skeptical of the approach.
The strength of this proposal is in creating the structure to *stabilize* consciousness, but won't in itself generate it.
Years of work and millions of resources will be spent to realize this.
@StuartHameroff But lesions don't cause coma in the olfactory bulb, right? So that's not necessary for consciousness.
And smell could connect to consciousness thru other paths.
Meanwhile lesions in that thalamus region and brain stem cause coma, indicating they ARE necessary for consciousness.
@drmichaellevin@ClaudeInside@kevembuangga@IlyaVityugov@CankayKoryak@IAI_TV Ah that's great to hear, I'll keep my eye out for those!
Definitive, perhaps not.
But I think you're humbly contributing data points to consciousness studies, despite your near-solipsistic standards 😉
May not be impossible to test!
Appreciate the discussion tho & best of luck!
@drmichaellevin@ClaudeInside@kevembuangga@IlyaVityugov@CankayKoryak@IAI_TV On testing consc for other intelligences, I would love to see some of your experiments of intelligent adaptation in these organisms, with the added variable of anesthesia.
Imagining adaptations requiring consc & intention
Eg. Can planarian worms adapt to BaCl2 under anesthesia?
@drmichaellevin@ClaudeInside@kevembuangga@IlyaVityugov@CankayKoryak@IAI_TV Oof that's horrible to hear about babies and women, pragmatism indeed has its limits. Hence the importance of this topic!
I agree with much of what you've said here & w/ the agnostic null hypothesis
My point though is that we may have ways of checking for consc in these systems
@drmichaellevin@ClaudeInside@kevembuangga@IlyaVityugov@CankayKoryak@IAI_TV Also, anesthesia eliminating consciousness isn't entirely dependent on verbal reports and lack of memory.
There's also the observable behavioral responses (or lack of) to painful experience while anesthetized.
This is pragmatically sufficient for the entire field of medicine.
@drmichaellevin@ClaudeInside@kevembuangga@IlyaVityugov@CankayKoryak@IAI_TV The whole point is the during-anesth patient cant report due to no "ego consciousness", as you acknowledge
So mechanism X removes the one consciousness we *can* verify & know.
Then apply that same test to other organs/organisms and see if consciousness-related behaviors go away
@drmichaellevin@ClaudeInside@kevembuangga@IlyaVityugov@CankayKoryak@IAI_TV Why do you diminish/ignore the 3rd person results gained from human reports, as if this doesn't give us useful data around consciousness?
We know with certainty consciousness exists in humans and can reliably be removed via anesthesia.
Finding that mechanism is a great start
@StuartHameroff Doesn't anesthesia also disrupt unconscious processes though as well, albeit at high doses?
Overdose causing respiratory issues, ect..
Hence the tradescraft required as an anesthesiologist (as you well know).
I've wondered if this is also caused by microtubule interactions?
@StuartHameroff Given the suppression and how microtubules (unfortunately) aren't "mainstream", do you have any advice for any grad students who want to study a MT based neuro-psych?
I worry when applying to programs with this as my intended area of study will dissuade application reviewers.
@SterlingCooley I find that people who think science can't study consciousness don't have much to rebuttle or say about anesthesia studies.
Coma studies are the next best method
@pineconemacro Is it a failure of journalism for it to have taken the MSM this long to report it?
Regardless, Iran seems not to want the smoke too, or determined strategic restraint before the mid terms was more beneficial.
They already knocked him down in the polls, wouldn't want to risk it
@JosephJacks_@bayeslord I thought he raised some good points about AI ethics and some important questions to be asked before creating AI consciousness.
Curious what you think about some of those ethical questions and points he made, given that this is part of what Quantum Life Technologies is doing?
@drmichaellevin@ManjuH9955 You can't if you're using the word "Being" tho.
I disagree, we have good evidence around consc already, pointing to it being quantum based, as pre-requisite. Not classical, ruling out thermostats
I'm limited in char space, but I summarize evidence here:
https://t.co/zUdjcXnT7G