Some of the cutting edge thinkers in consciousness studies all refer back to Logician and Mathematician Kurt Godel. Examples include Douglas Hoffstadter, in his epic “Godel, Escher & Bach: an eternal golden braid.” David Chalmers in his rather famous “The Conscious Mind.” Roger Penrose in his trilogy of works on mind brain interaction.
Each of these three note that based upon Godel’s Theorem [subject of an upcoming entry], it is not possible even theoretically for the mechanical predictable aspects of the electical/chemical brain to account for all the qualities associated with “mind.” Godel predicted the limitations of artificial intelligence in digital computing that have proved to be quite accurate, at least to date.
The three above authors all attempt to restore as reductionistic and physically based theory as possible, given the constraints of Godel’s Theorem. Chalmers and Penrose actually stated that the limitations provided by Godel’s Theorem could imply a more idealistic or mystical philosophy, but they specifically chose to stick to a more reductionistic explanation. I plan to take a more radical approach, approximating that of Amit Goswami, a physicist who wrote the rather stunning “The Self Aware Universe.”
More about Godel’s actual theorem next.
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