《意识的宇宙》内容简介
本书提出了一种基于经验的全面的意识理论。这一理论对于意识的*基本和*普遍的性质**次提出了一种科学的认识。这些性质是经验的私密性和整体性，同时又有无穷多种不同的意识状态，穷及人们记忆和想象之所能。究竟用什么样的神经过程才能解释会产生这样数量巨大的统一的意识状态呢？这种能力是今天的计算机所远远达不到的。为了回答这个问题，作者埃德尔曼和托诺尼运用了近代神经科学的全部知识和思想，从迄今建立过的*大的脑计算机模型，直到检测当我们意识到或并不意识到某个刺激时脑活动中实际发生变化的新实验。他们的这些论点是建立在由埃德尔曼在他的三本里程碑式的书籍——《神经达尔文主义》、《拓扑生物学》和《有记忆的现在》——所提出来的根本思想之上的，这些工作把达尔文主义的原理应用于脑的发育和心智产生方面。这一开创性工作的结果对有关意识的许多传统思想提出了挑战：意识过程不断地和很大一部分脑中的各种各样的无意识过程相互作用；意识过程并不局限于某个特定的脑区，而有赖于许多脑区之间的相互作用；并且这些相互作用并不彼此雷同，而极富个性。本书中的这些思想强调了每个个体的复杂性和独特性，它们对于哲学和我们有关我们自己的认识都有着极为重要的意义。
作者简介
作者之一杰拉尔德·M·埃德尔曼（GeralsdM.Edelman)，理学博士和医学博士，是美国洛克大学神经科学研究基金会的主席。他由于对免疫蛋白的重大发现，在1972年获得诺贝尔生理学奖或医学奖。另一位作者朱利欧·托诺尼(GiulioTononi)，医学博士和理学博士，是神经科学研究所的理论和实验神经生物学高级研究员。他和奥拉夫·斯庞斯（OlafSporns）一起主编了《选择主义和脑》（Selectionandthebrain）一书。
Introduction to the Universe of Consciousness
This book presents a comprehensive theory of consciousness based on experience. This theory provides the first scientific understanding of the most fundamental and universal nature of consciousness. These qualities are the privacy and wholeness of experience, and at the same time the infinite variety of different states of consciousness, as far as one can remember and imagine. What neural processes could account for such a vast number of unified states of consciousness? This capability is far beyond the reach of today's computers. To answer this question, the authors Edelman and Tononi use the full range of knowledge and thought in modern neuroscience, from the largest computer model of the brain ever built, to new experiments that examine what actually happens in brain activity when we are or are not aware of a stimulus. These arguments build on the fundamental ideas put forward by Edelman in his three landmark books, NeuroDarwinism, Topological Biology, and The Remembering Present, which apply Darwinian principles to brain development and the production of the mind. The results of this pioneering work challenge many traditional ideas about consciousness: conscious processes constantly interact with various unconscious processes in a large part of the brain; The process of consciousness is not confined to a specific brain area, but depends on the interaction of many brain areas. And these interactions are not identical to each other, but rather highly individual. The ideas in this book emphasize the complexity and uniqueness of each individual, and they have important implications for philosophy and for our understanding of ourselves.
About the author
One of the authors, Gerald M.Edelman, Ph.D., M.D., is the chair of the Neuroscience Research Foundation at Rock University. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1972 for his discoveries about immune proteins. Another author, GiulioTononi, MD, PhD, is a senior research fellow in theoretical and experimental neurobiology at the Institute for Neuroscience. Together with Olaf Spons, he edited the book "Selectionism andthe Brain."
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