Can consciousness be mapped?

[Swaggin916]

Do you believe that it's possible? Just a matter of time before it happens?

[dr.hee]

Do you believe that it's possible? Just a matter of time before it happens?

I doubt it. Maybe the neural mechanisms will be fully mapped out someday, but that's it imo. So my speculation would be something like being able to "create" consciousness one day, in a computer simulation context or even by assembing real neural networks. But we still wouldn't necessarily know why consciousness emerges. But just like everybody else, I have no clue at all.

[resin_baller]

Define "mapped" for this statement.

For that matter, define "consciousness". Every working definition I've found is either vague, highly philosophical, or so wide it would break down upon close examination.

[-p.tiddy-]

Science isn't even close to being able to understand why we are "self-aware" if that is what you mean...

I know this though, it has been pretty much all but proven that our consciousness can exist outside of our brain through OBEs, NDEs, astral plane accounts, etc

IMO our consciousness is our "soul/spirit"...the brain is a holding station for it, it doesn't create it.

[gigantes]

IIRC it's only six hops at most from one neuron to any other neuron in the brain. the number of connections must be mind-boggling. possibly higher in women because of their massive white neuron advantage.

hmm... WP says we have about 100 billion neurons, each of which has 7,000 synaptic connections. we're gonna need bigger guns.

you could also just focus on areas like the prefrontal cortex and maybe the hippocampus which are obviously very advanced for animals. the mostly primitive areas of our brains are extremely similar to the other mammals, so that's why i'd guess you could cut out the middleman so to speak.

maybe another thing you could do is look at substances / drugs / mental states which alter consciousness. that is, by seeing which areas become stimulated and which repressed on a scan... and recording the subject's behavior... you could maybe work out some kind of rudimentary map. not precisely the same kind of map as in the usual brain-mapping, but one from a purely consciousness POV.

maybe timothy leary and friends did some great research on this long ago, but because it wasn't acceptable at the time, it didn't get the kind of attention it deserved. robert anton wilson, too.

[Dresta]

Nope. The complexity of the brain is far beyond anything we could possibly understand. It would take a much bigger brain for starters.

There are more potential neural connections in the human brain than atoms in the whole universe. We still understand very little about the brain, and we probably never will understand that much about it.

[I<3NBA]

yes. given enough time, we'll eventually do everything we imagine.

[Swaggin916]

Define "mapped" for this statement.

For that matter, define "consciousness". Every working definition I've found is either vague, highly philosophical, or so wide it would break down upon close examination.

Mapped as in being able to connect the proper parts that will result in consciousness... and by consciousness yea I mean self aware. The ability to question one's existence, choose to live or die, etc.

Sure there is a lot going on the brain... but there is a lot going on in the external world as well and we have come so far in explaining our external world... and every discovery raises our consciousness and creates new connections. So for this question maybe the answer lies in whether we can find the building block that leads to consciousness. Maybe it doesn't need to be fully mapped out... but something needs to happen to get it going. Once consciousness arises, I don't see any stopping it. It can only get stronger and stronger, like ours has (Of course a lot of that is based on culture and our ability to communicate... another map).

[gigantes]

hmm. i would think consciousness can definitely devolve, considering that it's roughly equal to neural complexity.

complexities usually cost more to the organism, and evolution is full of examples of loss of complexity over time. this would undoubtedly cover brain development, although i'll admit it's probably rarer than other devolutions, such as hooved animals going to sea and losing much of the complexity of their limbs (as in whales).

the human brain requires a huge amount of metabolic energy to power. in various future scenerios, that may prove to be less beneficial. it's not that hard to imagine, frankly, given where we're currently headed. simpler can be better.

[Swaggin916]

gigantes I don't see that happening. I think it's no mystery that since we have covered the basis for people in developed countries there has been a massive boom in discovery. There should never be a shortage of food or living space and we will make proper adjustments if those were to start happening. I don't see us devolving as long as we can cover the basis.

[gigantes]

good luck.

[shlver]

The technical term for areas of the brain that are actively associated with consciousness is NCC(neural correlates of consciousness). here's a massive bank of research done on NCC's.
http://consc.net/mindpapers/8/all#.8.1b

A number of physiological states such as comas and absense siezures suggest that the improper function and damage to the thalamus to b the cause of loss of consciousness implying the thalamocortical circuit is central to consciousness. So yes consciousness is currently being mapped with some cleverly designed studies to more fully map out NCC's.