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Consciousness in Four Dimensions: Biological Relativity and the Origins of Thought
In a book that will profoundly alter the modern discourse on mind and influence the practice of neuromedicine, neurobiologist/neuropsychiatrist, Richard M. Pico unveils a revolutionary new approach to understanding consciousness that pinpoints its origins in the brain. Called “Biological Relativity,” the approach combines the laws of physics—especially Einstein’s laws of relativity—to the latest breakthroughs in neuroscience, molecular biology, and computational theory to create a coherent four-dimensional model for explaining the origins of life and the emergence of complex biological systems—from the living cell to the thinking brain.In a fascinating, ambitious narrative that draws upon a lifetime of experimental and clinical work, Dr. Pico tells a riveting story that begins in the imponderably distant past, with the first proto-cell that endured long enough to become its own frame of reference—both structurally and temporally—and culminates with the most complex biological referent system known to science, the human brain. He then elaborates his groundbreaking theory through discussions of such things as the origins of language, music, and mathematics. He explains why he believes consciousness is uniquely human, and explores the causes and potential treatments for a variety of thought disorders.
399 pages, Hardcover
First published October 17, 2001
8 people are currently reading
442 people want to read
About the author
Richard M. Pico
1 book5 followersRichard was born and raised in Indiana with a natural passion for basketball, which he played competitively in high school and recreationally until the age of 40, when he tore his Achilles tendon. Growing up near the Indy 500 racetrack, Richard also developed an early appreciation for cars and engineering... and for driving fast. His affinity and avid appetite for science and science fiction also had firm roots in his childhood.
After graduating from high school, Richard joined the Air Force, got married, and moved to California to start a family. He worked on rocket systems while stationed at Vandenberg Air Force Base and Johnston Island, but his primary focus was on the educational opportunities offered by the Air Force. While in California, he completed a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in Experimental Psychology, followed by a PhD in Neuroscience, studying learning and memory, and finally a medical degree specializing in Psychiatry and clinical research. He concluded his military career with the rank of Major at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, where he was developing novel metrics for diagnosing schizophrenia using 3D brain imaging.
Richard then moved to NYC, where he accepted a position as director of Inpatient Psychiatric Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center. It was in New York that his theory of human brain function took form, synthesizing his early thoughts on Einstein’s relativity theory, his training in Psychology and Neuroscience, and his insights from working with patients, ultimately leading to the publication of Consciousness in Four Dimensions: Biological Relativity and the Origins of Thought. While in New York, he also took on a new challenge, working for the first time outside the academic and clinical setting as vice president of Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer for the technology subsidiary of Empire BlueCross BlueShield. On September 11, 2001, in his office on the 19th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center, Richard felt the explosive collision of Flight 11. Many thought it was an earthquake, but having lived in California, Richard knew it was something else. He evacuated his team from the building and persuaded many from other floors and the immediate area to evacuate. He was clear and out of sight of the towers by the time they collapsed.
Less than a year later, Richard was hired on as Chief Medical and Technology Officer for Perot Systems Healthcare group in Dallas, Texas. This was a custom-made position that utilized his strengths in research and development, his clinical experience and his vision for technology solutions in healthcare. Richard launched Péradigm, a suite of applications that facilitate communication between healthcare providers, insurers and resources, ultimately aimed at lowering costs to patients. The job required a lot of travel, both global and domestic. Serendipitously, this is how he met his next wife, who had worked for 20 years in the airline industry. In October of 2005, they married and moved to Vancouver, Canada.
Richard transitioned back to the clinical setting, taking a position as Head of the Department of Psychiatry with Providence Heath Care at St. Paul’s Hospital. He simultaneously held a Senior Advisory title for Clinical IT at the Provincial Health Services Authority and a Clinical Professor faculty position at UBC.
He was in the midst of outlining two new volumes in what was intended to be a multifaceted series on Biological Relativity, in addition to his ongoing career opportunities, when he was diagnosed stage 4 colon cancer in July 2010. He passed one-year later on July 26th 2011.
After graduating from high school, Richard joined the Air Force, got married, and moved to California to start a family. He worked on rocket systems while stationed at Vandenberg Air Force Base and Johnston Island, but his primary focus was on the educational opportunities offered by the Air Force. While in California, he completed a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in Experimental Psychology, followed by a PhD in Neuroscience, studying learning and memory, and finally a medical degree specializing in Psychiatry and clinical research. He concluded his military career with the rank of Major at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, where he was developing novel metrics for diagnosing schizophrenia using 3D brain imaging.
Richard then moved to NYC, where he accepted a position as director of Inpatient Psychiatric Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center. It was in New York that his theory of human brain function took form, synthesizing his early thoughts on Einstein’s relativity theory, his training in Psychology and Neuroscience, and his insights from working with patients, ultimately leading to the publication of Consciousness in Four Dimensions: Biological Relativity and the Origins of Thought. While in New York, he also took on a new challenge, working for the first time outside the academic and clinical setting as vice president of Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer for the technology subsidiary of Empire BlueCross BlueShield. On September 11, 2001, in his office on the 19th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center, Richard felt the explosive collision of Flight 11. Many thought it was an earthquake, but having lived in California, Richard knew it was something else. He evacuated his team from the building and persuaded many from other floors and the immediate area to evacuate. He was clear and out of sight of the towers by the time they collapsed.
Less than a year later, Richard was hired on as Chief Medical and Technology Officer for Perot Systems Healthcare group in Dallas, Texas. This was a custom-made position that utilized his strengths in research and development, his clinical experience and his vision for technology solutions in healthcare. Richard launched Péradigm, a suite of applications that facilitate communication between healthcare providers, insurers and resources, ultimately aimed at lowering costs to patients. The job required a lot of travel, both global and domestic. Serendipitously, this is how he met his next wife, who had worked for 20 years in the airline industry. In October of 2005, they married and moved to Vancouver, Canada.
Richard transitioned back to the clinical setting, taking a position as Head of the Department of Psychiatry with Providence Heath Care at St. Paul’s Hospital. He simultaneously held a Senior Advisory title for Clinical IT at the Provincial Health Services Authority and a Clinical Professor faculty position at UBC.
He was in the midst of outlining two new volumes in what was intended to be a multifaceted series on Biological Relativity, in addition to his ongoing career opportunities, when he was diagnosed stage 4 colon cancer in July 2010. He passed one-year later on July 26th 2011.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 2, 2017
This book came to me after the author's son sent me a copy, and I will be eternally grateful for that. I was reading a lot about the origins of thought, from Peter Gardenfors to Jung. At first I was in doubt if it would be possible to assimilate all the book contents, because there's a lot of biophysics involved. But the author prepares very well the foundations to present his theory and the relation with Einstein's relativity. This book is amazing and changes my vision of the universe! Now I understand clearly not just the relativity but how this impacts our internal time and reference.
The author really found the boundary of thoughts, with evolution not just of us related to animals but related with our childhood with great references as Piaget studies about the childhood behaviors. And behaviorist and mentalist is two things that the author matches perfectly as he goes along with the biological relativity basis. It's a great and amazing extension of Einstein's relativity in biological concepts, since cell metabolism to human body and universe.
The author really found the boundary of thoughts, with evolution not just of us related to animals but related with our childhood with great references as Piaget studies about the childhood behaviors. And behaviorist and mentalist is two things that the author matches perfectly as he goes along with the biological relativity basis. It's a great and amazing extension of Einstein's relativity in biological concepts, since cell metabolism to human body and universe.
July 7, 2013
First exposure to integration theory giving rise to consciousness. Giulio Tononi claims to have developed this but Pico has him beat. It may not be as elegant but the basics are there; Tononi should give Pico his due credit.
February 20, 2014
Biological Relativity: Is it real?
Space and time run parallel in the universe, but in presence of matter they bend (curve) proportional to the mass of the object as predicted by theory of relativity resulting in gravitational effect. Light passing through spacetime bend wherever the spacetime dimension is bent.
Life and consciousness run parallel like space and time. Biological consciousness, at the most fundamental form of life exists in a primitive state, but evolves into complex form in the upper region of the evolutionary ladder. Consciousness is a collection, processing, storage, and communication of information in spacetime of life. Likewise life also collects, process, and communicates information in a 4D spacetime. The biochemical and biophysical processes that perform the functions of life is unique form of matter where laws of thermodynamics are intricately preserved. The Second law requiring increasing entropy, and increasing order required for a living cell is derived by the evolution of unique structure; cell compartmentization, nesting, and segregation of functions (cell organelles), membrane bound enzymes, multienzyme complexes, coupled reactions, metal mediated enzyme reactions, and use of stored chemical energy instead of electrical energy are uniquely evolved so that cell (life) could exist independently and perform its functions in coherence with consciousness. A living cell is characterized by cell division, reproduction and thus carrying the blue print of the parent in genetic code. Thus a star can not be a living being even though it is born, then grows, matures, dies, and requires fuel (hydrogen) to feed on to generate energy and for independent existence.
In this book the author presents a strange analogy between life & consciousness with the theory of relativity. In this comparison he visualizes matter and energy (gravity) referred to as inorganic universe, and the life forms referred to as organic universe, and consciousness, evolved during the course of evolution as three independent frames of references in four dimensional spacetime (4D; three space & one time dimensions). In this model of biological relativity the consciousness and life which are related to internal world of sensory experience and brain function creates reality. The 4D reality is a result of continuous information gathering, processing, storage, recollection and application; the referent system emerging from neural activity is referred to as consciousness. This book concentrates mainly on human consciousness with a discussion of structure and function of human brain and central nervous system, although there are some discussions about consciousness in other nonhuman non-primate life forms. The authors contention that biological relativity is a unique feature is little confusing. The process of sensation, perception, and emotion, learning, memory, thought, etc., are all information processing mechanisms and visualizing them as frame of reference does not make sense because they are all information processing and communicating mechanisms in 4D spacetime.
Space and time run parallel in the universe, but in presence of matter they bend (curve) proportional to the mass of the object as predicted by theory of relativity resulting in gravitational effect. Light passing through spacetime bend wherever the spacetime dimension is bent.
Life and consciousness run parallel like space and time. Biological consciousness, at the most fundamental form of life exists in a primitive state, but evolves into complex form in the upper region of the evolutionary ladder. Consciousness is a collection, processing, storage, and communication of information in spacetime of life. Likewise life also collects, process, and communicates information in a 4D spacetime. The biochemical and biophysical processes that perform the functions of life is unique form of matter where laws of thermodynamics are intricately preserved. The Second law requiring increasing entropy, and increasing order required for a living cell is derived by the evolution of unique structure; cell compartmentization, nesting, and segregation of functions (cell organelles), membrane bound enzymes, multienzyme complexes, coupled reactions, metal mediated enzyme reactions, and use of stored chemical energy instead of electrical energy are uniquely evolved so that cell (life) could exist independently and perform its functions in coherence with consciousness. A living cell is characterized by cell division, reproduction and thus carrying the blue print of the parent in genetic code. Thus a star can not be a living being even though it is born, then grows, matures, dies, and requires fuel (hydrogen) to feed on to generate energy and for independent existence.
In this book the author presents a strange analogy between life & consciousness with the theory of relativity. In this comparison he visualizes matter and energy (gravity) referred to as inorganic universe, and the life forms referred to as organic universe, and consciousness, evolved during the course of evolution as three independent frames of references in four dimensional spacetime (4D; three space & one time dimensions). In this model of biological relativity the consciousness and life which are related to internal world of sensory experience and brain function creates reality. The 4D reality is a result of continuous information gathering, processing, storage, recollection and application; the referent system emerging from neural activity is referred to as consciousness. This book concentrates mainly on human consciousness with a discussion of structure and function of human brain and central nervous system, although there are some discussions about consciousness in other nonhuman non-primate life forms. The authors contention that biological relativity is a unique feature is little confusing. The process of sensation, perception, and emotion, learning, memory, thought, etc., are all information processing mechanisms and visualizing them as frame of reference does not make sense because they are all information processing and communicating mechanisms in 4D spacetime.
December 30, 2008
All definitions as follows:
Conformation of my preception of reality and the mental conflict betweem "I" and "Why". The "Why" has two options to eleminate the conflict of mind.
1. Reality revieled by acquired knowledge through "The Scientific Method" that will provide truth as a foundation of the evolution of
life and human Mind as well as the life and mind of all species.
2. Assigning of a supernatural intity,a deity "God" and associative
" Religion" with a get out free card which stifles the mind and
NEGATES a full understanding of reality and a truthfull preceptor
of the gray area between Good and Evil.
I consider Richard M. Pico a Mind that has condenced the reality of scientific disipline's and presented the truth of twentieth century knowledge to the sheepel (coined word)meaning the mind of sheep produced by religion.
I certinaly hope this Mind does not contibute to the bottom line of corporations who have yet to proved there ability to truly and responsibly evaluate the gray between Good & Evil. The bottom line should not be and can not be the the goal to perpetuate planet earth
and all species there of.
Sincerely;
Rpbert A. Burns
12/29/2008
Conformation of my preception of reality and the mental conflict betweem "I" and "Why". The "Why" has two options to eleminate the conflict of mind.
1. Reality revieled by acquired knowledge through "The Scientific Method" that will provide truth as a foundation of the evolution of
life and human Mind as well as the life and mind of all species.
2. Assigning of a supernatural intity,a deity "God" and associative
" Religion" with a get out free card which stifles the mind and
NEGATES a full understanding of reality and a truthfull preceptor
of the gray area between Good and Evil.
I consider Richard M. Pico a Mind that has condenced the reality of scientific disipline's and presented the truth of twentieth century knowledge to the sheepel (coined word)meaning the mind of sheep produced by religion.
I certinaly hope this Mind does not contibute to the bottom line of corporations who have yet to proved there ability to truly and responsibly evaluate the gray between Good & Evil. The bottom line should not be and can not be the the goal to perpetuate planet earth
and all species there of.
Sincerely;
Rpbert A. Burns
12/29/2008
July 4, 2016
A bold theory in what's still one of the main mysteries in science. It may or may not be correct in the end, but this kind of theoretical thinking is much needed if we ever want to develop a complete theory of consciousness.
The book is easy to read even for those of us who are not experts in biology, Pico explains everything from the ground up. A stimulating and interesting reading.
The book is easy to read even for those of us who are not experts in biology, Pico explains everything from the ground up. A stimulating and interesting reading.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews