Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbatt!ucbvax!uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!goldfain
From: goldfain@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu.UUCP
Newsgroups: mod.ai
Subject: For the AIList "Consciousness" Discussion
Message-ID: <8701230959.AA06459@uiucuxe.CSO.UIUC.EDU>
Date: Fri, 23-Jan-87 04:59:40 EST
Article-I.D.: uiucuxe.8701230959.AA06459
Posted: Fri Jan 23 04:59:40 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 28-Jan-87 05:38:31 EST
Sender: woutput@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 27
Approved: ailist@sri-stripe.arpa


   *************************************************************************
   *                                                                       *
   *   Consciousness is like a large ribosome, working its way along the   *
   *   messenger RNA of our perceptual inputs.   Or again, it  is like a   *
   *   multi-headed Turing machine, with the heads marching in lock step   *
   *   down the great input tape of life.                                  *
   *                                                                       *
   ************************************************************************* 

     Lest anyone think I am saying more than  I actually am, please understand
that these are both meant  as metaphors.  I am not  making ANY claim that mRNA
is the chemical of brain activities, nor that we are finite-state machines, et
cetera ad nauseum.  I  am only trying  to get us   off of  square zero  in our
characterization of how "being conscious" can be understood.

     It must be something which has a "window" of a finite time period, for we
can sense the "motion" of experiences "through" our consciousness.  It must be
more involved than a ribosome or a basic Turing  device, since  in addition to
being able to  access the  "present", it continually  spins off things that we
call "memories", and ties these things down into a place  that allows them  to
be pulled back  into the consciousness.  (Actually,  the  recall of long  term
memory is more like the process of going into a dark room with a tuning  fork,
giving it a whack, then listening for something that  resonates, going over to
the sound, and picking it up  ... so perhaps the memories  are not "tied down"
with pointers at all.)
-------