ALPHABETICAL BRAIN™ VOCABULARY QUOTATIONS ABOUT CONSCIOUSNESS FROM THE BOOK August 23, 2019 NEW SCIENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS: Exploring the Complexity of Brain, Mind, and Self by Paul L. Nunez. Prometheus Books, 2016 (350 pages) BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE = Paul L. Nunez is Emeritus Professor at Tulane University and heads a small consulting business (Cognitive Dissonance, LLC) that engages in brain physics and cognitive science research, mostly with the Cognitive Science Department at the University of California at Irvine. He has authored three technical books: Electric Fields of the Brain: The Neurophysics of EEG, 1981 (2nd edition with Ramesh Srinivasan of UCI, 2006) and Neocortical Dynamics and Human EEG Rhythms, 1995. Professor Nunez holds a Ph.D. in engineering physics and NIH-sponsored postdoctoral training in the neurosciences, both from the University of California at San Diego. Early in his career he held several positions in private industry, working on such disparate projects as spacecraft guidance, plasma instabilities, and controlled fusion. Nunez's 2010 book addresses both the easy and hard problems of consciousness. Many view human consciousness as one of the following: 1) Nothing but a byproduct of sensory, motor, and memory information processing, essentially saying that the hard problem is just an illusion. 2) Something mystical that lies beyond scientific purview, implying that the hard problem is just too hard for us deal with. 3) Explained by flaky ideas, pseudo quantum mechanics, or appeals to fuzzy theology. By contrast, Professor Nunez's book Brain, Mind, and the Structure of Reality (2010) aims for a proper balance between knowledge and ignorance. The book is based on hard science but is written for a general audience. It involves ideas from philosophy, religion, ethics, neuroscience, physics, engineering, and cosmology. Personal stories and a little humor aim for an enjoyable read. What do we know, what do we only think we know, and what can we perhaps never know? Does the brain create the mind? Or is Mind already out there. You decide. Nunez's new book, The New Science of Consciousness: Exploring the Complexity of Brain, Mind, and Self, was published by Prometheus Books in November, 2016. This new book extends the ideas presented in the 2010 book, but softens the technical content to appeal to a broader audience. There are no equations in the body of the 2016 book. Rather they are replaced by carefully chosen analogues and metaphors. Professor Nunez has written about 100 scientific journal articles on EEG and related aspects of Complex Systems as well as many sections or chapters of edited books. A few of his more recent works are found in the following books: Multiscale Analysis and Nonlinear Dynamics: From Genes to the Brain, 2013 (Pesenson); Brain Computer Interfaces for Communication and Control, 2012 (Wolpaw); Encyclopedia of Behavioral Science, 2012 (Ramachandran); Quantitative EEG Analysis: Methods and Applications, 2009 (Tong and Thakor); Handbook of Brain Connectivity, 2007 (Jirsa and McIntosh); Encyclopedia of Nonlinear Science, 2005 (Scott); Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, 2004 (Adelman and Smith); Encyclopedia of the Human Brain, 2002 (Ramachandran); Analysis of Physiological Brain Functioning, 1999 (Uhl). Nunez was awarded the 2011 Pierre Gloor Award by the American Clinical Neurophysiological Society for his contributions to clinical research. He currently writes regular blog posts for Psychology Today (https://www.psychologytoday.com/experts/paul-l-nunez-phd). Author photos: Left, 2009; Middle, 70th birthday celebration, Queenstown, NZ, 2010; Right, Standing in UCSD's EEG lab, 1976. Nunez's hobbies include playing tennis (sub mediocre), running in senior track meets (200m, 400m above average), and writing historical fiction (as Scott Spade). This book explains in layperson's terms a new approach to studying consciousness based on a partnership between neuroscientists and complexity scientists. The author, a physicist turned neuroscientist, outlines essential features of this partnership. The new science goes well beyond traditional cognitive science and simple neural networks, which are often the focus in artificial intelligence research. It involves many fields including neuroscience, artificial intelligence, physics, cognitive science, and psychiatry. What causes autism, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer's disease? How does our unconscious influence our actions? As the author shows, these important questions can be viewed in a new light when neuroscientists and complexity scientists work together. This cross-disciplinary approach also offers fresh insights into the major unsolved challenge of our age: the origin of self-awareness. Do minds emerge from brains? Or is something more involved? EDITORIAL REVIEWS = [2] It is rare to encounter such a readable and yet deep exploration of the nature of consciousness. The New Science of Consciousness draws on some of the most fascinating findings in fields as diverse as neuroscience, quantum mechanics, relativity, complexity theory, and the role of information as the fundamental underpinning of physical reality. Nunez demonstrates that the materialistic reductionist approach frequently used to dismiss or trivialize the 'hard problem' of consciousness is fundamentally flawed. He goes on to propose a fascinating and altogether more plausible 'multiscale conjecture' that opens the possibility of consciousness being encoded at multiple spatial and temporal scales of brain function and structure. A profound yet lucid contribution to one of the deepest questions facing science: the nature of consciousness." – Richard Silberstein, PhD, Professor Emeritus at Swinburne University, Melbourne, and chairman of Neuro-Insight. [3] In the humble and highly illuminating manner of a master of several disciplines, Nunez shares his life's work on the relation between the dynamic (multiscale) patterns of the brain and mental states. His synthesis culminates in an enticing conjecture linking the physical and mental worlds that the 'new science' of consciousness ignores at its peril. – J. A. Scott Kelso, PhD, Creech Chair in Science, Florida Atlantic University, and professor of computational neuroscience, Ulster University. [4] How does our conscious mental life arise in conjunction with neurophysiological processes going on in our brains? That vital question is the central target of this fine book, which is authored by one of the principal architects of contemporary brain theory and written in an engaging and informed style accessible to anyone who wants to get a general picture of what's going on in this rapidly emerging field--by which I mean not only what's already more or less agreed upon scientifically but also the potentially revolutionary new ideas that are just now coming over the horizon. Strongly recommended! – Edward F. Kelly, PhD, lead author of Irreducible Mind and Beyond Physicalism. [5] While consciousness remains one of the great-unsolved mysteries, there is a way to build a foundation of facts on which to base some reasonable theories as to its origin. Dr. Nunez refines his approach by first breaking things down into two distinct problems. The Easy Problem involves measuring the brain using established methods (EEG's, MRI's, et al.) and searching for relationships with our thoughts and behaviors. One caveat -modern physics warns us that some kinds of information are fundamentally unknowable, as in the "shadow world" of quantum mechanics. The Hard Problem, according to the author, involves first seeking the origins ofconsciousness itself, and then explaining all this to a non-scientist! How is it that 100 billion little nerve cells somehow give rise to consciousness? Analogies offer some assistance here, and a convenient example is human social systems. Brains, like culture, work top down and influences can come from both inside and outside; the process could be called "neuron sociology." It is in this latter quest for an explanation of consciousness that the scientist begins to flirt with his inner philosopher. – PW Smith, PhD,Blog Critics (online). [6] What is consciousness? How is it that we are self-aware? "Do minds emerge from brains? Or is something more involved?" In his book, The New Science of Consciousness, brain research consultant and professor emeritus from Tulane University, Paul Nunez, does his best to answer these questions, specifically looking to science for what it can offer on both the "easy" and "hard" questions of consciousness. The book attempts to make the science of consciousness accessible and is a good choice for readers who are interested in the science that underlies consciousness studies....Nunez understands that there is more to consciousness studies than strict science and discusses this tension at length, working to heal the divide between science and philosophy in this field. Even if consciousness emerges from brain complexity as believed by most scientists, the very existence of the phenomenon of self-awareness remains a deep mystery." – Constance Scharff PhD, New York Journal of Books (online). [7] One of 8 science books you should read this fall. [8] A thoroughly engaging, fascinating, and lively tour of the relationship between physics, complexity, and the mind. Challenging, innovative, and thought-provoking." – Todd E Feinberg, MD, coauthor of The Ancient Origins of Consciousness: How the Brain Created Experience. [9] Nunez applies a mixture of philosophy and science to tackle the fundamental problem in neuroscience--consciousness and how the brain works to create mind. The thought-provoking book will open many readers' eyes to the new appreciation of the brain as a complex dynamic system of waves of electrical activity interacting at different rhythms and phases to process and filter information, to learn from experience, and to operate at an unconscious, pre-conscious, and conscious level. – R. Douglas Fields, PhD, neuroscientist and author of The Other Brain and Why We Snap. [10] Paul L. Nunez is a leading expert on brain dynamics, particularly on the mechanisms of EEG generation. This volume is an impressive compendium of major current topics in physics, neuroscience, and cognitive science. From this foundation, Nunez attempts to build a link between the physical and mental worlds by adding consciousness to the unsolved problems of relativity theory, quantum mechanics, and thermodynamics. – György Buzsaki, PhD, author of Rhythms of the Brain. FROM THE AUTHOR = Video on-line: vimeo.com/13871399. PL Nunez, Neural models and their connections to experiments: A friendly reminder that fancy mathematics can never trump physical or biological principles. Brain Connectivity Workshop, Berlin, June 1-4, 2010. See regular Psychology Today blog posts on consciousness, for example, Brain Dynamic Patterns and the Mind. At what organizational level is consciousness "encoded?" psychologytoday.com/blog/the-new-science-consciousness/201703/brain-dynamic-patterns-and-the-mind instantly return to: QUOTATIONS ABOUT CONSCIOUSNESS or instantly return to: WEBSITE INDEX produced by Infinite Interactive Ideas™