Sloman Aaron
School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
Entropy (Basel). 2020 Jun 2;22(6):615. doi: 10.3390/e22060615.
I shall introduce a complex, apparently unique, cross-disciplinary approach to understanding consciousness, especially ancient forms of mathematical consciousness, based on joint work with Jackie Chappell (Birmingham Biosciences) on the Meta-Configured Genome (MCG) theory. All known forms of consciousness (apart from recent very simple AI forms) are products of biological evolution, in some cases augmented by products of social, or technological evolution. Forms of consciousness differ between organisms with different sensory mechanisms, needs and abilities; and in complex animals can vary across different stages of development before and after birth or hatching or pupation, and before or after sexual and other kinds of maturity (or senility). Those forms can differ across individuals with different natural talents and environments, some with and some without fully functional sense organs or motor control functions (in humans: hearing, sight, touch, taste, smell, proprioception and other senses), along with mechanisms supporting meta-cognitive functions such as recollection, expectation, foreboding, error correction, and so forth, and varying forms of conscious control differing partly because of physical differences, such as conjoined twins sharing body parts. Forms of consciousness can also differ across individuals in different cultures with different shared theories, and social practices (e.g., art-forms, musical traditions, religions, etc.). There are many unanswered questions about such varieties of consciousness in products of biological evolution. Most of the details are completely ignored by most philosophers and scientists who focus only on a small subset of types of human consciousness-resulting in shallow theories. Immanuel Kant was deeper than most, though his insights, especially insights into mathematical consciousness tend to be ignored by recent philosophers and scientists, for bad reasons. This paper, partly inspired by Turing's 1952 paper on chemistry-based morphogenesis, supporting William James' observation that all known forms of consciousness must have been products of biological evolution in combination with other influences, attempts to provide (still tentative and incomplete) foundations for a proper study of the variety of biological and non-biological forms of consciousness, including the types of mathematical consciousness identified by Kant in 1781.
我将介绍一种复杂的、显然独特的跨学科方法来理解意识，特别是古代形式的数学意识，这是基于我与杰基·查佩尔（伯明翰生物科学公司）关于元配置基因组（MCG）理论的合作研究。除了最近非常简单的人工智能形式外，所有已知的意识形式都是生物进化的产物，在某些情况下还受到社会或技术进化产物的增强。不同感官机制、需求和能力的生物体之间，意识形式存在差异；在复杂动物中，意识形式在出生、孵化或化蛹前后以及性成熟和其他类型成熟（或衰老）前后的不同发育阶段也会有所不同。这些形式在具有不同天赋和环境的个体之间也会有所不同，有些个体具有功能齐全的感觉器官或运动控制功能（在人类中包括听觉、视觉、触觉、味觉、嗅觉、本体感觉和其他感觉），有些则没有，同时还伴随着支持元认知功能的机制，如回忆、期望、预感、纠错等，以及不同形式的意识控制，部分差异是由于身体差异造成的，比如连体双胞胎共享身体部位。意识形式在不同文化、具有不同共享理论和社会实践（如艺术形式、音乐传统、宗教等）的个体之间也会有所不同。关于生物进化产物中意识的这些多样性，有许多问题尚未得到解答。大多数哲学家和科学家只关注人类意识类型的一小部分，完全忽略了大多数细节，从而导致理论浅薄。伊曼努尔·康德比大多数人更深刻，尽管他的见解，尤其是对数学意识的见解，由于一些糟糕的原因，往往被当代哲学家和科学家忽视。本文部分受到图灵1952年关于基于化学的形态发生学论文的启发，支持威廉·詹姆斯的观察结果，即所有已知的意识形式必定是生物进化与其他影响相结合的产物，试图为恰当研究意识的生物和非生物形式的多样性，包括康德在1781年所确定的数学意识类型，提供（仍然是初步的和不完整的）基础。
