

Origin of Consciousness (bicameral mind) - 10ren
http://blog.plover.com/brain/

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hugh3
What really concerns me about this theory is what it implies for the 90% of
the human race that isn't European. Since various human groups separated about
50,000+ years ago and consciousness is only 3,000 years old, when did _they_
acquire consciousness? Were Native Americans and Australian Aborigines
unconscious until taught to read and write? Are they still unconscious?

I suppose this is probably dealt with somewhere in the book.

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GavinB
There's also the problem that split brain patients
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-brain>) exhibit some nonstandard
behaviors, but nothing that would indicate lack of conscious thought.

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gte910h
While this is a fun book, I'm pretty sure several parts of it were proven
false in the early 80's.

Worth reading for the fun of it though.

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snorkel
Interesting but it's hard to see how schizophrenia would ever be genetically
advantageous for an entire species.

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workingsmart
I have heard another option for the origin of consciousness. True or false,
the theory goes that every neuron has a micro-consciousness when it is not
busy and the more neurons a thing has that are not busy with things like
heartbeat and breathing the more conscious that thing is.

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hugh3
That doesn't sound like much of an explanation. All it has done is kicked the
problem downstairs, from explaining how an entire brain can have consciousness
to explaining how a single neuron can have a "micro-consciousness", which
sounds like an even more difficult thing to explain.

