20160613 (thinking)

Aristotle's De Anima survived through
Arab scholars

Wake up there! Is consciousness

Anything more than the brain 

Being in a state of receiving 

Signals from its senses and 

Indicating in some fashion that

The signals are being received,

As in, “Will you turn down that

Awful racket? A guy wants to 

Sleep here.” Because to any Joe

Or Jane that’s not consciousness

As they see, hear, touch, or smell

It. Joe doesn’t see signals (neuronal

Spikes) anymore than Jane hears

Signals (neuronal spikes). Joe sees

A sunset; Jane hears a symphony.

But the signals (neuronal spikes)

Are indistinguishable when shown

On an oscillograph. The only thing

Different about them is their origin

And destination—left eye (Joe’s

Right eye was destroyed in a fight)

And right ear (Jane wears hearing

Aids since she is 85). Doctors who

Have opened the brain and inserted

Electrodes can cause a patient to

Hear or see something by electrically

Stimulating the proper neuronal 

Path. Somewhat similarly (except

Without the gory surgery) subjects

Who are asleep will report seeing 

Or hearing things, even doing things

While a recording of their bodies

In a darkened room, shows that 

There was no light to see by, nor

Things to see, nor did their bodies

Move—swimming, playing tennis.

Attempting to explain what’s going

On here, researchers will describe

That subjects asleep are unconscious

To stimulation around them and at

The same time are conscious to 

Stimulation within them—however

Disordered those experiences may

Be compared to waking states

Where basketballs don’t turn into

Octopi and we really didn’t fall,

Cradles and all, from the tree tops.

As I’ve written before this question

Has been puzzling philosophers

And scientists for centuries now

Without resolution. Variously

Known as the “butterfly dreaming

He is a man,” or the mind-body

Problem, or Descartes’s being

Certain he exists because he thinks,

Its more recent popular variations

Is the Matrix concept, whereby all

Humans are captive but electrically

Stimulated into false reality by

“Sentient” machines “who” (as 

Opposed to “which’ have taken

Over all humanity except the

Really smart hackers who have

Escaped their control; another

Variant is the “Turing Test” whereby

A human being, through a series 

Of questions, can determine 

Whether the answerer (behind 

A wall or screen) is an intelligent

Human being or one really

Smartass computer (intelligence

Here would be that consciousness

We accord to other human beings

Experiencing the world in as 

Lively and direct a process as

We do). Through the centuries

Thinkers have said no, yes, and

Maybe. No, there is no homunculus

Answering the telephone in our brain,

or as Descartes had it sits curled up

In the pineal gland deciding how we

Live. Yes, we are indentical to our

Living composition--consciousness

May be a capacity of the same matter

That makes hammers and saws if 

It organizes through "emergence" to

Be able to reflect on its actions

And survive. Maybe our organized

Activities arise from lowly matter

And survive in another state (New

Hampshire?) and we leave the 

Body like the pneuma, the breath,

As the ancients thought. You can 

See we’ve been thinking about 

This unsuccessfully for a long time.

c. J.S.Manista, 2016