1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910974869803321

Titolo

Consciousness evolving / / edited by James H. Fetzer

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Amsterdam ; ; Philadelphia, Pa., : John Benjamins Pub., c2002

ISBN

9786612254888

9781282254886

128225488X

9780585461243

0585461244

9789027297907

9027297908

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

xix, 251 p. : ill

Collana

Advances in consciousness research, , 1381-589X ; ; v. 34

Altri autori (Persone)

FetzerJames H. <1940->

Disciplina

126

Soggetti

Consciousness

Evolution

Consciousness - Physiological aspects

Evolution (Biology)

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Nota di contenuto

Consciousness Evolving -- Editorial page -- Title page -- LCC data -- To Greg Mulhauser -- Contents -- Contributors -- Introduction -- Prologue -- Turing indistinguishability and the blind watchmaker -- Part 1: Natural consciousness -- Consciousness, adaptation and epiphenomenalism -- The functions of consciousness -- Sensations and grain processes -- Part 2: Special adaptations -- Evolution, consciousness and the language of thought -- Why did evolution engineer consciousness? -- Nothing without mind -- Part 3: Artificial consciousness -- Studying the emergence of grounded representations -- Ago Ergo Sum -- Evolving robot consciousness -- Epilogue -- The future with cloning -- Subject index -- Name index -- Advances In Consciousness Research.

Sommario/riassunto

A collection of stimulating studies on the past, the present, and the future of consciousness, Consciousness Evolving contributes to



understanding some of the most important conceptual problems of our time. The advent of the modern synthesis together with the human genome project affords a platform for considering what it is that makes humans distinctive. Beginning with an essay that accents the nature of the problem within a behavioristic framework and concluding with reflections on the prospects for a form of immortality through serial cloning, the chapters are divided into three sections, which concern how and why consciousness may have evolved, special capacities involving language, creativity, and mentality as candidates for evolved adaptations, and the prospects for artificial evolution though the design of robots with specific forms of consciousness and mind. This volume should appeal to every reader who wants to better understand the human species, including its distinctive properties and its place in nature. (Series A).