Abstract
This set of web pages is my attempt at a hierarchical explanation of how the human brain works
using seven levels of description. I aim to show how the lower levels explain the processing of data in my brain,
how the intermediate levels create and maintain representative symbols that together form a model of my world,
including of my body and my brain itself, and how the higher levels explain the inner experiences that I have of,
for example, attention, emotion, free will and consciousness.
This set of pages also has a hierarchical structure:
this page is a very high-level overview,
more details are given in the introduction,
and the summary provides a description of the seven levels
with links to the detailed pages that include references to various authoritative sources.
- Multiple levels of description are needed in an explanation of any complex object,
and I propose seven hierarchical levels, each with their own concepts and descriptions.
- The lower levels use the basic coincidence detection capability of neurons
along with the flexibility of the synapse connections between them
to describe a standard method that the brain uses to process and prioritise data.
They also describe how the important connections that go in the other direction,
back towards the origin of the data, are created and maintained.
From a higher-level viewpoint, this standard method can be described as compression or abstraction, prediction and selection.
- The intermediate levels describe how, when this standard method is applied many times cumulatively and
hierarchically, it inevitably leads to the creation and maintenance of representative symbols in my brain.
I call these symbol schemes, and each is a networks of neurons.
All of these together form what is, in effect, a model of my world, including of my body and of the processes within my brain itself.
A model or schema is needed not only for understanding, but also for guiding action. Action in this sense includes
the manipulation of external objects, the movement of parts of my body and the limited control I have over my own brain processes.
- The higher levels show how these schemas, in particular the self symbol schema that is a model of me, my body and
my brain processes, can explain the internal feelings and experiences that I have,
thereby resolving the so-called explanatory gap between them and the known low-level details of the workings of the brain.
- I conclude that all my perception, including my perception of my own body and my own brain processes,
is indirect and solely via symbol schemas; I can only be aware of a compressed and abstracted model of reality,
and what I refer to as “I” is also a subset of that model, although I cannot be aware of this.
- What I think of as my consciousness (which may be what some people call “soul”), including
my self-awareness and my innate knowledge of my continuing existence (“transtemporal identity”)
is actually a compressed and abstracted model or schema of me and my own brain processes that perceives itself.
“I” exist only within the schema, and I perceive everything from the perspective of being within this schema,
although it is not possible for me to be aware of this perspective from introspection alone.
- My inherent understanding of the processes of my own brain, including my memory, perception and attention,
and my belief in self-determination and free will, are all represented by symbol schemas that reside within my self symbol schema.
Like all symbol schemas, they are compressed and abstracted versions of reality and therefore not fully complete or accurate,
but they only represent those parts of the processes at the level in which they exist, which means only the parts
that are available to consciousness. This explains why my understanding of things like my attention and my free will are
only high-level descriptions, and therefore very incomplete.
- The emotions and meaning that I experience, the feelings (or “qualia”) that I have
relating to objects, events, brain processes or other elements of myself, as well as pain, are all generated in my self symbol schema.
When a particular symbol schema is linked to my self symbol schema via the process of attention, the concept
and meaning of that particular symbol as well as any related feelings or emotions become conscious because of connections to
other symbol schemas and to sensory and motor areas of the brain. When something comes into my consciousness,
it is as if that symbol schema and its connections have become part of the concept of “me” for a short time.
- Basic feelings evolved from homeostatic imperatives that helped simple organisms promote
their own survival, but the extra dimensions of emotion, qualia, pain and meaning came about when a more advanced brain developed self-awareness.
- These conclusions help to answer a number of questions:
- Why, as a young child, it took several years for my self-awareness and consciousness to develop,
and also why I cannot remember events that happened before this was largely in place.
- Why my instinctive (but incorrect) feeling about my own consciousness (that I might call my “soul”)
is that it is somehow separate from my body and my brain, and is therefore non-physical or supernatural;
and also then why many people think that the soul must be eternal.
- Why I am not, and cannot be, aware of all the processing that goes on in my brain (often called “the subconscious”)
because my self symbol schema (which is me) can only be aware of things within my self symbol schema, or briefly connected to it.
- Why many other animals, and certainly all mammals, must have some level of self-awareness and consciousness,
although it will not feel the same as consciousness feels to me; one reason is that the ability to use language gives me a big advantage.
- How a computer, AI (Artificial Intelligence) software, or other inanimate machine, could potentially gain some self-awareness and consciousness,
but only close to the level of an adult human if it has the abilities to self-configure,
perform unlimited associative learning, act to change its inputs, and perceive and model the outside world and itself.
For humans and other animals, a body is required for feelings, but it seems possible that some other “container” could act like a body.
Any entity that models itself to a sufficient extent is capable of becoming conscious, but it is impossible for anyone to know
for sure if anything else (or anyone else) has consciousness that is anything like the same as their own.
Page last uploaded
Wed Jan 31 07:25:01 2024 MST
