Notes for the Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul - Rudy Rucker

Notes for The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul, by Rudy Rucker
Nonlinear Brain Waves
The glider model is somewhat more appropriate than waves because we don’t in fact
see our thought trains spreading out and diffusing, they tend to stay rather narrowly focused.
But if we really want a wave-like model of thought trains, we can in fact represent narrow,
focused waves by something called non-linear solitons.
Brain Neuron Rules?
If the brain’s activity is something like a CA running on a network of neurons, we can
ask what is the rule in each neuron. One might use a complicated or a simple idea. The
complicated idea is to have different rules at each neuron. The simple idea is to have the
same rule at each neuron.
Consciousness Isn’t Hardware or Software
The curious thing is that I can imagine changing any component of my hardware or
software without actually affecting my essential sense of being me. My body’s cells are
always replacing themselves. And I’m always forgetting old events and learning new things.
***
The notion that your consciousness is separate from your hardware and software fits
with the sense that you can change a great without affecting your essential sense of personal
identity. Your body’s cells are always replacing themselves, for instance, and you’re always
forgetting old events and learning new things.
Extra Damasio Quote
...the neurobiology of consciousness faces two problems: the problem of how the
movie-in-the-brain is generated, and the problem of how the brain also generates the sense
that there is an owner and observer for that movie. ... In effect, the second problem is that of
generating the appearance of an owner and observer for the movie within the movie. ( page
11 or 111).
Game creature psychology
Speaking more formally, we give the creature an integer variable called
recent_success which keeps a running total of how much the creature’s score has changed
over, say, the last hundred updates. And now suppose that the creature has access to several
alternative feeling_array options. And, finally, suppose that the creature’s update method
does the following:
(i) recompute the rolling recent_success indicator to take into account the score
change, if any, produced by the most recent move;
(ii) possibly change the values stored in feeling_array if recent_success is deemed to
have too low a value;
(iii) update the creature’s current motions on the basis of the currently active
feeling_array as applied to the other creatures’ locations and types.
p. 77