The Politics of Consciousness

Posted 21 Mar 2003 at 15:24 UTC by steve

Consciousness, according to neuroscientists Christof Koch and Francis Crick, is a lot like politics. "Coalitions" of neurons in the brain struggle with each other for the power to make us aware of them and direct our thoughts. An article by Tom Siegried of the Dallas Morning News provides a short summary of the most important coalitions proposed in this scheme. Their idea sounds like a simplified version of Marvin Minsky's "Society of Mind" theory.