Half
a century ago, many did not think it
was possible to understand the secret of life. Then two scientists, Jim
Watson
and Francis Crick, discovered the structure of DNA, forever changing
biology
and the way we view ourselves in the natural order of things. We are now once again facing a similar
pursuit in determining the material basis of the conscious mind.
Consciousness
is one of the major unsolved problem in science today. How do the salty
taste
and crunchy texture of potato chips, the unmistakable smell of dogs
after they
have been in the rain, the awfulness of a throbbing tooth pain, or the
sight of
the summit illuminated by the setting sun, emerge from networks of
neurons and
their associated synaptic and molecular processes?
I
will outline a framework that Francis
Crick and I have developed over the past twenty years to come to grips
with
this ancient mind-body problem. At its heart is a sustained, empirical
program
to discover and characterize the Neuronal Correlates of Consciousness, the minimal set of neural events jointly
sufficient for any one conscious sensation.
I will summarizes what is known about the biology and neurology of consciousness, outline the limits to our knowledge, and discusses some of the ongoing experiments using visual illusions to manipulate the relationship between physical stimuli and their associated conscious percepts.
I will end by discussing some of the implications of this research for building conscious machines.