
Do Brains Operate at a Tipping Point? New Clues and Complications - jonbaer
https://www.quantamagazine.org/do-brains-operate-at-a-tipping-point-new-clues-and-complications-20190610/
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jimduk
Gerald Edelman wrote on this back in the 80s and 90s. To massively
oversimplify The books Neural Darwinism and The Remembered Present posited a)
how neural action sequences originally for e.g. ballistic throwing, could be
repurposed for linear language production and b) How consciousness needed to
be a semi-stable chaotic attractor so that different avenues of thought could
be pursued but that there was still coherency. Exciting that some of this may
have been on the right track

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GuiA
> _How consciousness needed to be a semi-stable chaotic attractor so that
> different avenues of thought could be pursued but that there was still
> coherency_

Loose metaphors like this kind of make sense on a verbal/visual level - but
then "attractor" has a well defined mathematical meaning, and "consciousness"
absolutely doesn't. So the onus is on the person making the comparison to
demonstrate why a certain mathematical formalism is called for; otherwise you
just end up with "consciousness is quantum!" pseudoscientific statements that
might make sense in some fuzzy emotional way, but entirely fail to provide any
insight of scientific value.

Would you recommend the books on that basis?

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chrisweekly
> " _consciousness is quantum!_ "

Amused by this particular choice as an example of ["fuzzily emotional
pseudoscience"], given Roger Penrose (Hawking's peer in Nobel-winning black
hole astrophysics) wrote a book -- The Emperor's New Mind -- detailing his
theory of how consciousness relates to quantum mechanics. Wondering if you had
that book in mind, w/ your comment a critique thereof.

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whatshisface
I'm not sure about the names involved but "quantum consciousness" is not a
very good theory or really a theory even.

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MeteorMarc
The story gives me associations with the superregenerative receiver
([https://www.electronics-notes.com/articles/radio/radio-
recei...](https://www.electronics-notes.com/articles/radio/radio-
receivers/super-regenerative-receiver.php))

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ezconnect
I just noticed this on my 1.5 yr old son, when I am drawing a rectangle
there’s a certain length of it that it will become a train at all other shorte
lengths its a bus

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Galaxeblaffer
It would be really awesome if we figured out exactly how the brain works
before we are able to simulate it. But at current rates of new discovery I
think we might be able to simulate it before we understand it

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amelius
But we're currently on a different path, since backpropagation is not how
nature does it (as far as I know).

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p1esk
What does backpropagation has to do with this research?

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andbberger
Are articles talking about the brain being poised towards criticality poised
towards criticality? Interaction lengths do seem to be diverging.

