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The Remembered Present: A Biological Theory of Consciousness
A genuine understanding of how mental states arise from the structure and function of the brain would be, as William James declared in 1892, ”the scientific achievement before which all past achievements would pale.” Can a comprehensive biological theory of consciousness be constructed in 1990? Any attempt has to reconcile evidence garnered from such diverse fields as developmental and evolutionary biology, neuroanatomy and neurophysiology, cognitive psychology, psychiatry, and philosophy.Having laid the groundwork in his critically acclaimed books Neural Darwinism (Basic Books, 1987) and Topobiology (Basic Books, 1988), Nobel laureate Gerald M. Edelman now proposes a comprehensive theory of consciousness in The Remembered Present . Integrating findings generated by the recent explosive growth in the neurosciences with current knowledge of anatomy, cell biology, and psychology, Edelman has been able to construct a detailed model of how we become aware of our own existence.In addition to providing a scientific account of brain function and consciousness, the theory advanced in The Remembered Present will have a significant impact on a wide variety of fields. It provides a new outlook that may prompt fundamental revisions in the way linguists view language, physicians classify mental diseases, and philosophers look at the mind-body problem.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published March 7, 1989
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479 people want to read
About the author
Gerald M. Edelman
26 books102 followersGerald Maurice Edelman (born July 1, 1929) is an American biologist who shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work with Rodney Robert Porter on the immune system.[1] Edelman's Nobel Prize-winning research concerned discovery of the structure of antibody molecules.[2] In interviews, he has said that the way the components of the immune system evolve over the life of the individual is analogous to the way the components of the brain evolve in a lifetime. There is a continuity in this way between his work on the immune system, for which he won the Nobel Prize, and his later work in neuroscience and in philosophy of mind.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 13, 2016
First, the title is intriguing. If you really think about, how much in the present are we? If an instant passes, then it's past.
This is not an easy read at all. Much like The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. For me, the mind is the unknown frontier. While most people look outward, I love reading theories about how the brain functions; more importantly how consciousness works. Even though this is an older book, Edelman's theories have held up surprisingly well.
I recently have been researching the concept of uploading human consciousness into a computer. Some say it will never happen, as our brains are so complex. Others are already working on the concept, with the most intriguing the posit to use nanotechnology to 'map' the brain, then transmit the map to a quantum computer. I used this concept in my short series, Burners and Prime, set in the post-apocalyptic future.
As a side note, and this might sound strange, if you haven't seen Inside Out, it is a stunning representation of how memories are formed and how all aspects of emotion are tied to the memories and serve a purpose; most importantly sadness.
This is not an easy read at all. Much like The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. For me, the mind is the unknown frontier. While most people look outward, I love reading theories about how the brain functions; more importantly how consciousness works. Even though this is an older book, Edelman's theories have held up surprisingly well.
I recently have been researching the concept of uploading human consciousness into a computer. Some say it will never happen, as our brains are so complex. Others are already working on the concept, with the most intriguing the posit to use nanotechnology to 'map' the brain, then transmit the map to a quantum computer. I used this concept in my short series, Burners and Prime, set in the post-apocalyptic future.
As a side note, and this might sound strange, if you haven't seen Inside Out, it is a stunning representation of how memories are formed and how all aspects of emotion are tied to the memories and serve a purpose; most importantly sadness.
January 4, 2014
It took several false starts and stalls, but my third attempt at this beast proved victorious-- and much easier than expected. I suppose it took being in the right frame of mind and open schedule to devote my full brain-power to the task. Once those conditions were met, I hardly put it down.
That's probably the first thing to note about this book, which presents a fairly detailed and complete neural model of consciousness, from evolutionary biology to phenomenology: it's a dense read. And although the subject matter demands a certain density, I feel that comprehension could have been eased and length reduced with more careful editing to patch wordy passages and strip redundancies. However, there is an undoubted trade-off here, because it was often the case that rewording of the same ideas helped me to better understand them.
Rigidly scientific in structure, several introductory chapters are devoted to the philosophical background of the study of consciousness and neuroscience as well as the basic assumptions of the author's theoretic approach, before even getting into the micro-level neuronal theory that will serve as the foundation for his much broader macro theories. These latter don't really show up until fully halfway through the book, after a probably-too-complex tangent into a complete computational model of visual perceptual learning. Whereas my experience with modelling left me fascinated by the details, I can't imagine most readers would appreciate slogging through them to discover them relevant only in outline to the broader (more general-interest) theory. It serves as a fine introductory example of the more complex ideas to be developed but it is written more like a research paper than an introduction.
My personal time-course of the full reading was interesting and probably indicative of why I enjoyed the challenge so much. I'd picked the book up because the basic synopsis sounded relevant to a (rough) doctoral dissertation plan I've had in the works for a year. By the time Edelman had reached his macro theory, I had descended into panic: this theory sounds exactly like mine, only better, because it strongly ties to basic neuroscience where I had set my focus at the more conceptual systems level. Here I am in 2014, fumblingly and presumptuously attempting something a much wiser scientist already solved in 1989! Existential crisis, activate.
The further I went, however, the more I appreciated that no, he did not solve consciousness. The work is more a proposal for future research than it is a solution to many of our most enduring questions. Moreover, that I had independently reached similar conclusions probably said good things about both me and the ideas. I stopped panicking like a student and started thinking like a scientist. I noticed points of divergence at which I felt my own ideas could contribute above and beyond what he'd presented, and points at which our ideas could interact to create something more biologically plausible and computationally tractable than either approach alone. I finished the book with a satisfied determination and a new outlook on my work.... and really, on myself. This is, frankly, how all scientific reading should go.
I honestly don't know to what sort of niche audience I could possibly recommend this book... a reader deeply interested in consciousness, recursion, and emergence, who also has enough expertise in neuroscience to both follow along (no hand-holding here: you either already know the structural terms or you're left behind) and note discrepancies with current neurological research, outdated as some of this necessarily is? Small audience pool, I think.
But I loved it.
I may soon tackle Edelman's earlier Neural Darwinism for a more complete detailing of the theory's neural foundations, as I believe it could further strengthen my own ideas about consciousness.
That's probably the first thing to note about this book, which presents a fairly detailed and complete neural model of consciousness, from evolutionary biology to phenomenology: it's a dense read. And although the subject matter demands a certain density, I feel that comprehension could have been eased and length reduced with more careful editing to patch wordy passages and strip redundancies. However, there is an undoubted trade-off here, because it was often the case that rewording of the same ideas helped me to better understand them.
Rigidly scientific in structure, several introductory chapters are devoted to the philosophical background of the study of consciousness and neuroscience as well as the basic assumptions of the author's theoretic approach, before even getting into the micro-level neuronal theory that will serve as the foundation for his much broader macro theories. These latter don't really show up until fully halfway through the book, after a probably-too-complex tangent into a complete computational model of visual perceptual learning. Whereas my experience with modelling left me fascinated by the details, I can't imagine most readers would appreciate slogging through them to discover them relevant only in outline to the broader (more general-interest) theory. It serves as a fine introductory example of the more complex ideas to be developed but it is written more like a research paper than an introduction.
My personal time-course of the full reading was interesting and probably indicative of why I enjoyed the challenge so much. I'd picked the book up because the basic synopsis sounded relevant to a (rough) doctoral dissertation plan I've had in the works for a year. By the time Edelman had reached his macro theory, I had descended into panic: this theory sounds exactly like mine, only better, because it strongly ties to basic neuroscience where I had set my focus at the more conceptual systems level. Here I am in 2014, fumblingly and presumptuously attempting something a much wiser scientist already solved in 1989! Existential crisis, activate.
The further I went, however, the more I appreciated that no, he did not solve consciousness. The work is more a proposal for future research than it is a solution to many of our most enduring questions. Moreover, that I had independently reached similar conclusions probably said good things about both me and the ideas. I stopped panicking like a student and started thinking like a scientist. I noticed points of divergence at which I felt my own ideas could contribute above and beyond what he'd presented, and points at which our ideas could interact to create something more biologically plausible and computationally tractable than either approach alone. I finished the book with a satisfied determination and a new outlook on my work.... and really, on myself. This is, frankly, how all scientific reading should go.
I honestly don't know to what sort of niche audience I could possibly recommend this book... a reader deeply interested in consciousness, recursion, and emergence, who also has enough expertise in neuroscience to both follow along (no hand-holding here: you either already know the structural terms or you're left behind) and note discrepancies with current neurological research, outdated as some of this necessarily is? Small audience pool, I think.
But I loved it.
I may soon tackle Edelman's earlier Neural Darwinism for a more complete detailing of the theory's neural foundations, as I believe it could further strengthen my own ideas about consciousness.
February 28, 2013
a really good read!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews