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Full-Text Articles in Physics

Consciousness As A Factor In Evolution, Kenneth A. Augustyn Jan 2020

Consciousness As A Factor In Evolution, Kenneth A. Augustyn

Michigan Tech Publications

What I call the mind began as a non-conscious robotic biochemical process control system in the very earliest forms of life. As life evolved, problems in control became more difficult and exceeded the computational capabilities of the organisms. Nature discovered a means of transcending computable physical processes resulting in non-computational subjective mental capabilities that, while still not conscious, had a degree of genuine autonomy from the physical world. These autonomous subjective wants and goals now affected the course of (but not the mechanism of) evolution. The integrated amalgam of robotic and transrobotic unconscious capabilities eventually gave rise to consciousness, which …


Special Issue On The Third Workshop On Biological Mentality, Kenneth A. Augustyn Jan 2020

Special Issue On The Third Workshop On Biological Mentality, Kenneth A. Augustyn

Michigan Tech Publications

The Third Workshop on Biological Mentality was held from September 23, 2019 to March 2, 2020 as a series of twenty-one Monday online conferencing sessions, each consisting of a talk followed by a Q&A discussion. Like the two previous workshops [1, 2], the objective of this workshop was to seek a deeper level of understanding the physical foundations of biological mentality (whether conscious or nonconscious).


Physical Foundations Of Biological Mentality, Kenneth Augustyn Jan 2019

Physical Foundations Of Biological Mentality, Kenneth Augustyn

Michigan Tech Publications

Dualism struggles to connect two layers: the conscious mind and the physical workings of matter. It ignores a vast middle layer between the two, a layer that is beneath consciousness yet above known physical law. This middle layer is trans-robotic mentality, a means discovered by Nature to transcend robotic mentality. This middle layer evolved over billions of years before consciousness emerged from it, assuming more and more functions critical to survival as species evolved. Consciousness eventually emerged from trans-robotic mentality (not from robotic mentality), first intermittently then later more-or-less continuously. But there is no direct link between consciousness and matter. …