Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia; Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.
Modular Brain creates Unified Mind
Post 50.August 28, 2018
Modular Mind vs Unitary Self The Self is a System
In his book on Evolution and the Modular Mind, Robert Kurzban follows Daniel Dennett (cartesian theater) and Marvin Minsky (“society of minds”) in their theory of modular minds. All approach their subject from a materialistic viewpoint, and reject Descartes' dualistic notion of a spiritual soul in a material body. The book's title refers to the well-known, but little-understood, problem that people often can't make-up their minds, don't know what they believe, and say & do opposite things — thus seeming to be hypocrites. He begins with some recent dis-coveries of neurology showing that the human brain has many subconscious functions (modules) that sometimes act at cross-purposes. One puzzling example is “blind sight” in which people with brain damage are functionally blind, but are somehow able to do things that require vision. The author's explanation is to assume that one module1, which reports visual perception to consciousness, is non-functional even though the sub-conscious visual paths are working properly. Another example is the frequent conflict between emotional desires (dessert) and rational goals (fit new dress). Such mental confusion & conflict is what he calls “multiple competing motives” and “multiple selves”.
Kurzban's evolutionary explanation for a modular brain is reasonable, and useful for scientific purposes. Yet he also resorts to analogy, in the metaphor of a hierarchical bureau-cratic organization, to illustrate that the Chief Executive Officer (representing the Self) is typically unaware of all the business's lower level activities. He has VPs to oversee those departments (modules), and to report to him only the most important information, especially anything that might affect the company's relationship to the outside world. However, he emphasizes that the "CEO" in the brain is not actually a conscious being, but merely another module whose primary function is to represent the body as a whole. The common analogy of a little man (homunculus) in the brain running the body is convenient, but technically misleading. Dennett, in Consciousness Explained, says that there is no single module in charge of all brain/body operations. Instead, the hundreds of subconscious modules do their various functions independently, and only rarely report to the few conscious modules. However, his mechanical theory still doesn't explain how those top level brain components came to be aware of their own inner operations : self-consciousness.
In discussing the “consistent inconsistencies” of the brain, such as cognitive dissonance & contradictory beliefs2, Kurzban points-out some of the the “moral hypocrisy” that we see in politicians and other prominent leaders under close scrutiny of the Press and the opposition party. Some of them seem to be genuinely unaware of the conflict between what they say they believe, and what they do. Another recent discovery of psych-ology is the concept of Implicit Racism, where both black & white policemen deny any racial discrimination, but subtle tests reveal subconscious bias in their attitudes toward racial and economic classes. Kurzban says that, in the bureaucratic metaphor, “you”– the part of your brain that experiences the world and feels like you're in “control” – is better thought of as a press secretary than as the president”. The press secretary is kept out-of-the-loop in some cases, to allow for plausible deniability. Hence, in the current US administration, she is especially likely to be caught saying one thing to the Press, while the president is saying the opposite on Twitter.
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Why everyone (else) is a hypocrite, Evolution and the Modular Mind Robert Kurzban, evolutionary psychologist , 2010
Consciousness Explained Daniel Dennett, 1991
The Society of Mind Marvin Minsky, 1985
Is the Society of Mind leaderless? What is the function of the conductor of an orchestra? The modular musicians can play their own parts without anyone waving a stick. But without a single mind in charge, they can drift off tempo, and miss points of emphasis. Each instrument-alist hears only the local sounds nearby, but the man out front hears the whole. The conductor doesn’t play an instrument, and he doesn’t just beat time like a metro-nome. Instead, he listens critically to the music, and provides feedback to the players in order to present a unified presentation of the piece. He is not just a dumb figurehead, but the person-ification of the ensemble. Likewise, the Self is a super-module that welds hundreds of sub-modules into a single mind. The Soul/Self is aware of non-self, and is also self-conscious.
1. Brain Module : “A module is an information-processing mechanism that is specialized to perform some function. That's it.” A typical computer chip has many such modules that work together toward a goal set by the Programmer. A cell phone is a collection of specialized apps that serve standardized functions for the User. But, of all such compart-mentalized information- processing systems, only the human brain is aware of its intentions, if not its motives. Yet, awareness of the Will can’t be explained by the mechanical system. Which sounds spookily like a Ghost Outside the Machine, as proposed by Descartes in his concept of a dual-module Body & Soul. Nevertheless, I still think the Soul/Self actually arises from the holistic operations of the brain's parts.
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