by Matti Bergström, Helsinki University and Pia Ikonen, Helsinki School of Economics
We have earlier (see abstract in Consciousness and its Place in Nature, Skövde, Sweden 2001) presented a fractal model of the limbic self of the brain. In this we considered, on the base of certain sensory physiological findings by us, the space of the Self being a Mandelbrot space. There the real number axis (r) represents the effect of cortically mediated outer objective physical information, and the imaginary number axis (i) represents the effect of brain stem mediated inner subjective value content of the subject. From the point of view of consciousness state of the brain this can be understood so that the both effects together (MacLean 1973) are forming a state of the limbic Self that we usually call consciousness. In this state the Self represents the imaginary number component (that is a wholeness and its content, difficult to understand with a real number logic), and the real number component consisting of informatory elements mediated via cortical areas to the Self. The complex number vector at the plane (i,r) of the limbic space then shows the state of the consciousness. The dynamics of this vector depends on the changing relation between the effects of 1´st person inner values, on which we believe, and of 3´rd person outer information, which we know.
The dynamics thus represents the thinking process of brain´s neuro-mental Self, which always is a reciprocal interaction between our inner wishes and outer necessities, i.e. between belief and knowledge. This interaction can be modulated by free fantasy and philosophical ideas, a resource of selection of possibilities (p, a third dimension of the limbic Self space, see Bergström and Ikonen, Conference Research Abstracts, Tucson 2002) inherent in the bifurcation processes (see Prigogine) in the chaotic brain stem. We have simulated the dynamics of the limbic vector with a Julia equation, a special case of the Mandelbrot formula. In letting an outside stimulus invade the (p,i,r)-space of the limbic Self the movement of the vector followes the iteration of the Julia equation. The movement simulates the thinking as a reaction of the Self to the "stranger" invading our Self. The invader is hereby either approved or discarded as can be seen from the behaviour of the iterations. This kind of a process is the same as in our behaviour in the environment (Skinner: thinking is behaviour) and it also resembles a darwinian dynamics.
Consciousness thus is an active process, not a passive one (see Cotterill). It relates us with our environment. In this connection it is good to remember that our brain is developed from the ectoderm, same system that produces our skin: it relates our inner system to our environment. In this connection it is good to remember the synchronicity theory of Jung, the psychologist and Pauli, the physicist. Pauli compares the connection between the subjective and objective as our being on a ridge between Scylla and Charybdis (from Odysseus), a difficult ground to walk on without falling to the side of mystic Scylla, a six-headed monster in its dark cave, or to the side of Charybdis, bright but violent whirlpool. Quite right: the complex number space of consciousness in limbic Self is a difficult ground to stay on! But nevertheless, it is possible to simulate it on a computer. It is also possible to add to the computer program used by us the ability of learning earlier modes of thinking due to familiar outside stimuli (invaders, see above), and still spare the ability of the conscious Self to react to new situations with thinking, speech and motor actions regulated by this thinking.
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