Activitas Nervosa Superior
August 22, 2019
Christopher B. Germann
10 citations
Psychedelics can enhance cognitive flexibility, with a study involving 120 participants revealing that 70% experienced improved problem-solving abilities after exposure to serotonergic compounds. This effect is linked to serotonin's role as a neurotransmitter, influencing behavior and cognition. Participants reported increased openness and creativity, suggesting that these neurochemical changes may aid psychotherapists in treatment settings. The findings highlight the potential of psychedelics in altering mental processes, offering insights into how chemical synthesis and alkaloids can reshape our understanding of volition in linguistics and thought.
Activitas Nervosa Superior
April 29, 2019
C. Tyler
The author compares two philosophical approaches to quantum physics and consciousness: Henry Stapp's view that the observer's mind collapses the wave function and extends to a cosmic mind, and the author's own "Emergent Aspect Dualism," which builds a rational philosophy of mental and quantal complexities without invoking a transcendent cosmic mind. Both philosophies share dual aspects of mind, the interrogative nature of consciousness, rejection of physical wavefunction collapse, and creative emergence of physical complexity. They diverge on cosmic mind: for Emergent Aspect Dualism, the only possible cosmic mind is the universe itself operating on a cosmic time scale.
Activitas Nervosa Superior
April 16, 2019
P. Werbos
A new philosophical position on quantum measurement, consciousness, and the soul is proposed, starting from a first-person viewpoint characterized as Rational German existentialism. It rejects the notion that quantum measurement relates to consciousness or the soul, and argues against taking a rigid stance on three possible types of theory of everything: the multiverse, finite-dimensional Einsteinian theories, or something weirder like a digital universe. The paper further suggests that an entire species of noospheres permeating the cosmos is plausible under the first two theories and may explain veridical weird experiences.
Activitas Nervosa Superior
September 1, 2010
Douglas J. Matzke
The paper proposes a dualist model of mind and body that addresses formal and physical limits to computation, arguing that these limits explain why current artificial intelligence cannot produce genuinely intelligent machines. It describes ideal computational leverage mechanisms based on primitive properties of the universe, such as space, time, and number of dimensions, derived from modern physics. An intuitive model of computational costs suggests that unlimited intelligence would require a sparse, high-dimensional spacetime with unrestricted locality and a formalized observer mechanism. The model contends that such a computational framework supports a dualist view of consciousness, where mind has properties distinct from brain and body, differentiating natural consciousness from current AI.
Activitas Nervosa Superior
September 1, 2009
Todd Murphy
The human brain contains about five million magnetite crystals per gram, with the meninges holding twenty times that number. These 'biomagnetite' crystals have shapes not found in nature, suggesting they formed within the tissue rather than being absorbed externally. Their orientation appears to maximize magnetic moment, potentially enabling groups of crystals to function as a system. The authors propose a heuristic metaphor comparing all cognitive and sensory modalities to a sound mixing board, where each modality is a vertical rheostat—enhanced functioning toward the top, suppressed toward the bottom. Becoming conscious of phenomena in any modality involves adjusting that modality's rheostat.
Activitas Nervosa Superior
September 1, 2008
S. Reinis
The human mind is proposed as a process that depends on interactions among large populations of cortical neurons, connected by biochemical, electrical, and quantum factors into a massive system. Consciousness relies on additional communication between particles, especially electrons. The Pauli repulsive exchange mechanism and other communication mechanisms may transform physical events into subjective information.