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On the origins and evolution of qualia: An experience-space perspective

This paper elaborates on a proposal for mapping a configuration space for selector circuits (SCs), defined as the subset of neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs) responsible for evoking particular qualia, to its experiential counterpart, experience-space (E-space), as part of an investigation in...

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Autor principal: Lacalli, Thurston
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9399462/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36032325
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2022.945722
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author Lacalli, Thurston
author_facet Lacalli, Thurston
author_sort Lacalli, Thurston
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description This paper elaborates on a proposal for mapping a configuration space for selector circuits (SCs), defined as the subset of neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs) responsible for evoking particular qualia, to its experiential counterpart, experience-space (E-space), as part of an investigation into the nature of conscious experience as it first emerged in evolution. The dimensionality of E-space, meaning the degrees of freedom required to specify the properties of related sets of qualia, is at least two, but the utility of E-space as a hypothetical construct is much enhanced by assuming it is a large dimensional space, with at least several times as many dimensions as there are categories of qualia to occupy them. Phenomenal consciousness can then be represented as having originated as one or more multidimensional ur-experiences that combined multiple forms of experience together. Taking this as a starting point, questions concerning evolutionary sequence can be addressed, including how the quale best suited to a given sensory modality would have been extracted by evolution from a larger set of possibilities, a process referred to here as dimensional sorting, and how phenomenal consciousness would have been experienced in its earliest manifestations. There is a further question as to whether the E-space formulation is meaningful in analytical terms or simply a descriptive device in graphical form, but in either case it provides a more systematic way of thinking about early stages in the evolution of consciousness than relying on narrative and conjecture alone.
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spelling pubmed-93994622022-08-25 On the origins and evolution of qualia: An experience-space perspective Lacalli, Thurston Front Syst Neurosci Neuroscience This paper elaborates on a proposal for mapping a configuration space for selector circuits (SCs), defined as the subset of neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs) responsible for evoking particular qualia, to its experiential counterpart, experience-space (E-space), as part of an investigation into the nature of conscious experience as it first emerged in evolution. The dimensionality of E-space, meaning the degrees of freedom required to specify the properties of related sets of qualia, is at least two, but the utility of E-space as a hypothetical construct is much enhanced by assuming it is a large dimensional space, with at least several times as many dimensions as there are categories of qualia to occupy them. Phenomenal consciousness can then be represented as having originated as one or more multidimensional ur-experiences that combined multiple forms of experience together. Taking this as a starting point, questions concerning evolutionary sequence can be addressed, including how the quale best suited to a given sensory modality would have been extracted by evolution from a larger set of possibilities, a process referred to here as dimensional sorting, and how phenomenal consciousness would have been experienced in its earliest manifestations. There is a further question as to whether the E-space formulation is meaningful in analytical terms or simply a descriptive device in graphical form, but in either case it provides a more systematic way of thinking about early stages in the evolution of consciousness than relying on narrative and conjecture alone. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-08-10 /pmc/articles/PMC9399462/ /pubmed/36032325 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2022.945722 Text en Copyright © 2022 Lacalli. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Lacalli, Thurston
On the origins and evolution of qualia: An experience-space perspective
title On the origins and evolution of qualia: An experience-space perspective
title_full On the origins and evolution of qualia: An experience-space perspective
title_fullStr On the origins and evolution of qualia: An experience-space perspective
title_full_unstemmed On the origins and evolution of qualia: An experience-space perspective
title_short On the origins and evolution of qualia: An experience-space perspective
title_sort on the origins and evolution of qualia: an experience-space perspective
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9399462/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36032325
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2022.945722
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