Illusion Consciousness as Illusion

10:40 AM, October 27, 2007

I read this AM about consciousness as illusion.

I started with the Susan Blakemore article which is good - has a lot of stuff:

the Change Blindness videos are good - people changed behind doors - interviewers don't realize it.

Scenes change between saccades people don't realize. People are just not storing that much (or anything).

Consciousness: try to open the refrigerator door really fast to see if the light is ON when the door is closed.

You can't do it. The light comes on ONLY WHEN YOU LOOK.

CONSCIOUSNESS comes on only when you look.

Next item was: the book the USER ILLUSION (written by Norretranders in 1991)

The "user illusion" in computing is the  desktop graphical user interface (GUI): the friendly, comprehensible illusio n presented to the user to conceal all the bouncing bits and bytes that do the actual work. Tor N�rretranders writes that  "our consciousness is a user illusion for ourselves and the world ... one's very own map of oneself and one's possibilities of intervening in the world." Much of N�rretranders' evidence comes from comparing the wide bandwidth of experience to the narrow bandwidth of consciousness, and from examining how much of our brain function is never consciously acknowledged. Although slightly out of date (the book was written in 1991; it was a bestseller in Europe),  The User Illusion has been well translated and gives a refreshing, non-Anglophone take on a problem that is not likely to go away anytime soon.  --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Nirretranders declares: "Consciousness is a fraud." The realm of the subconsciousAthe "Me"Ais infinitely richer and must be cultivated if we are to experience the full sensation of reality. A best seller in the author's native Denmark, this book weaves together concepts from mathematics, computer science, neurology, and psychology.

Illusion Consciousness as Illusion

Attachments