Consciousness, Life and the Universe

Cover
Half Title
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Foreword
Introduction: the ultimate questions of consciousness, life and the universe
1 A tale of millions of years: the origin of consciousness research (from the Old Stone Age to the Middle Ages)
	Myth: facing the unknown and the abyss
	Religion: the words of an oak
	Philosophy: know thyself
	Science: the substrates of the soul
2 A five-century quest: explaining consciousness (17th century–today)
	Ghost in the machine and birth of consciousness
	Measure consciousness: rise of experimental psychology
	Era of consciousness: qualia, brain, computer and quantum mind
		The hard problem: what is it like to be a bat or a zombie?
			The emergence of the explanatory gap
			The hard problem, a false problem?
		The neural basis of consciousness: specialization, integration and embodiment
			Global integration of brain activity
			Key integrative neural structures
		Computers as brains and conscious machines
			The rise of information theory, functionalism and computationalism
			The birth of the Turing test and conscious machines
		Quantum consciousness
			Consciousness: spectator or actor?
			Consciousness and quantum brain
	Where are we now?
3 Toward the ultimate understanding of consciousness: tracing the deep roots in life and the universe
	Our essence: the hidden foundation and nature of consciousness
		The indispensable substratum of consciousness
			Anatomical hierarchy of consciousness
			Evolutionary and developmental hierarchy of the substrates of consciousness
			Functional hierarchy of the substrates of consciousness
		What is consciousness?
			Feeling the body: integrated internal body mapping as foundational consciousness
			Sensing the world: integrated body-environment mapping as expansive consciousness
			Higher cognitive functions as advanced mapping tools for augmenting consciousness
	In search of the hidden part of ourselves: the nonconscious processes of the human organism
		Neural information processing that does not produce conscious experience
			Dissociate experimentally conscious and nonconscious processes
			When the blind are not blind . . .
			Markers of conscious and nonconscious processes?
		Physiological processes that cannot be consciously controlled
			Cognitive processes out of our control
			Those automatic functions that keep us alive
			Nonconscious control of muscles and action
		Physiological processes that cannot be directly accessed through consciousness
			The inner workings of our body insulated from ourselves
			Benefits and fatal flaws of the limited conscious access to our body
			Unlock the secrets of our body: map the nonconscious and expand consciousness
	A so long journey: from a single cell to the human organism
		Building a home: primitive internal and external mapping in unicellular organisms
			Emergence of the first living structures
			Membrane, the foundation of a home
			The origin of internal and external mapping in living organisms
		Building a body: augmented and integrated internal and external mapping in multicellular organisms
			Unity makes strength: from single cells to multicellular organisms
			Enhancement of senses and global homeostatic systems—enhancement of mapping abilities
			Emergence of nervous systems: a further step in integrated mapping
		The human organism: advanced internal and external mapping and the next leap of evolution
			From a bacterium’s sensing to human consciousness
			What makes our consciousness human
			The next evolutionary leap of human consciousness
	Deep in our cells: from particles to the universe
		The origin of consciousness: what is life?
			The very pulse of life and consciousness
			The foundation and origin of life on Earth
			Special structures in the fabric of the universe
		The ultimate origin and meaning of life and consciousness: what is the universe?
			The cosmic origin of the fundamental laws governing life and consciousness
			The mind of God or the origin of the universe: nothingness?
			The final judgment: all is meaningless?
4 Expand consciousness: toward the unknown
	Expand body mapping and enhance self-regulation and self-repair
	Expand environment mapping and assimilate the worlds of other life-forms
	Expand the multiscale mapping of the universe: from nothingness to the entire cosmos
Conclusion: create the future
Index