A Novel Science of Consciousness: Towards the Cybernetic Theory of Mind

“Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else.” ―Erwin Schrödinger

WHAT IS CONSCIOUSNESS? Consciousness remains scientifically elusive because it constitutes layers upon layers of non-material emergence: Reverse-engineering our thinking should be done in terms of networks, modules, algorithms and second-order emergence — meta-algorithms, or groups of modules. Neuronal circuits correlate to “immaterial” cognitive modules, and these cognitive algorithms, when activated, produce meta-algorithmic conscious awareness and phenomenal experience, all in all at least two layers of emergence on top of “physical” neurons. Furthermore, consciousness represents certain transcendent aspects of projective ontology, according to the now widely accepted Holographic Principle.

​My newly-released The Cybernetic Theory of Mind eBook series starts with Book I (NOOGENESIS: Computational Biology) with the meta-analysis of leading theories of consciousness and a lengthy discussion on how different species have a variety of their biological information processors which unsurprisingly results in qualia diversity. All species live in their own unique sensory universes. Species-wide mind-networks are ubiquitous in Nature. Consciousness and optimized meta-algorithmic information processing are the two sides of one coin. Feeling and thinking are ways we process information, but our emotional sensation is normally faster than a conscious thought. Nothing is real for us until perceived. The proposed Conscious Instant Hypothesis denotes that we experience waking reality as a sequence of perceptual frames.

​There’s no shortage of workable theories of consciousness and its origins, each with their own merits and perspectives. We discuss the most relevant of them in the book series in line with my own Cybernetic Theory of Mind that I’m currently developing. Interestingly, these leading theories, if metaphysically extended, in large part lend support to Cyberneticism and Cybertheism which may come into scientific vogue with a future cyberhumanity.
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