From the Brain to the Soul

[vivian maxine]

Has anyone read Giulio Tononi's "PHI: A Voyage From the Brain to the Soul"? I cannot make sense of the second part - the part where he has Galileo talking back and forth about dark and light? Maybe someone understands what he is aiming at? Thanks.

[Dave_C]

Hi Viv. I don't have the book but took a quick look around the net to see if there was any mention and found this:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... i-excerpt/

and also this:
http://www.uboeschenstein.ch/texte/Tononi-IIT.pdf

Do either of these refer to that part of the book you're interested in discussing? Would either of these links help this thread along? It would be nice to see what you're asking about.

Thanks,
Dave.

[vivian maxine]

Dave, that second link is a marvel. He has taken the main parts of the book and integrated them into a summary of what Tononi wrote. I don't know who the author of this is. Nor can I identify U Boe but this is going to be of great value for review.

Thank you so very, very much. I have work to do here.

[DragonFly]

The neuron connections are the feature that make for the information of the individual neurons to become integrated.

[vivian maxine]

The neuron connections are the feature that make for the information of the individual neurons to become integrated.

True. And he makes the distinction between the cerebrum's conscious ability because of this integration, something the cerebellum minus it connections cannot do.

That, of course, is just a small side note but interesting. If Tononi is right about what consciousness is and what happens to it at death, there will be a lot of loud protests around the world, methinks.

All that said, when I finish part three, I must re-read part two. Maybe I can make something of it after the summary in Dave's last link.

Thanks much.

[DragonFly]

Emergences can be mystifying at first, and at second, too. Although some are fairly reductive to their parts, many seem not to be, although all must be dependent on their parts. Reality, consciousness, and life would seem to be among the toughest to fathom.

'Emergence' is at the top of my list to figure out now, for in my Pandora thread I have spacetime being a low-energy emergence from the high-energy Planck realm.