The blog Journey to Perplexity notes that Gerald Edelman‘s book Second Nature: Brain Science and Human Knowledge offers some valuable insights into why “the mind is not a computer.” I am not sure who writes this blog, but he seems to be writing from a philosophical background.
http://iamyouasheisme.wordpress.com/2008/02/25/the-mind-is-not-a-computer/
Its been a while since I read Edelman’s book. Edelman won the Nobel Prize in 1972 for important discoveries about the structure of antibodies, but he has devoted the last several decades to studying neuroscience. His two most well-known contributions are his theory of s0-called neural Darwinism and his study of the importance of redundancy and feedback loops within the brain. He has written quite a few books on the subject including Wider Than the Sky: The Phenomenal Gift of Consciousness (2005).
Second Nature is Edelman’s attempt to address some of the philosophical issues about consciousness while Wider than the Sky introduces some of his theories about how the brain generates consciousness.
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Hi:
Yes, I come at the issues of consciousness from a philosophical perspective. I gave up on being a brain surgeon when I was about twelve, and pursued philosophy instead. I subsequently found that I might have learned more about the mind-body problem if I’d gone to medical school. Still thinking about it, but working as an engineer. I VERY much enjoy seeing how Edelman takes ideas which occurred to me in simple and inchoate form as an undergrad, and develops them in light of his wide knowledge of the human nervous system.
Lichanos
I started out in engineering myself, but went to medical school straight from earning my master’s degree in biomedical engineering.
I hope you will check out the Brain Science Podcast and then come and join the conversation about this topic (about computers and brains) on the Discussion Forum at http://brainscienceforum.com
I have no idea how to use a Podcast, and don’t really want to know. I don’t own an iPod or anything like it. I hate earphones!
I’ll check out the forum though. Thanks for the invite!
You do not need an mp3 player or earbuds to listen to a podcast. Assuming that your computer has speakers of some sort, you can listen to a podcast right at your computer, which is what a lot of people do.
I hope you will check out this list of recent episodes and give one a try:
http://brainsciencpodcast.wordpress.com/episodes/summary-for-the-brain-science-podcast-episodes1-26/
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