Computer, Consciousness, Creativity By Susan Greenfield Talk presented at the 19th International Interdisciplinary Seminar What differentiates human persons from animals and machines? Netherhall House, London, 5-1-2017 Baroness Susan Greenfield CBE, is a British scientist, writer, broadcaster and member of the House of Lords. Specialising in the physiology of the brain, Susan researches the impact of 21st century technologies on the mind, how the brain generates consciousness and novel approaches to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Susan has written a range of non-specialist books on issues relating to the mind and brain for the general reader. She appears regularly on radio and television and frequently gives talks to the public and private sector.

4. RAY KURZWEIL: The Singularity

5. NEILS BOHR:
“You’re not thinking, - you’re just being
logical!”
ROGER PENROSE:
Algorithms for intuition and common
sense?

6. ANTONIO DAMASIO:
The importance of a body

8. CONSCIOUSNESS AS A PROPERTY OF ‘MERE’
COMPLEXITY…
 Simple brains vs. complex computers
 Human brain non-computational
 Importance of a body
 The qualitative dimension of diverse neurochemicals

9. THE TURING TEST….

10. STUART SUTHERLAND:
A computer would be conscious when it ran
off with his wife…

11. WHAT IS THE BASIS OF HUMAN UNIQUENESS?

13. DEVELOPING A MIND…
Newborn 3 Months 15 Months 2 Years

14. EXPERIENCES LEAVE THEIR MARK ON THE
BRAIN...

15. A. Pascual-Leone, et al., J Neurophysiology 74 (1995):1037-1045
Control
Physical Practice
Mental Practice
‘THINKING IS…
MOVEMENT CONFINED TO THE BRAIN’

17. AN ‘ENRICHED’ ENVIRONMENT…

18. Standard ‘Enriched’
EFFECTS OF AN ‘ENRICHED’ ENVIRONMENT

19. CONNECTIONS GIVE EVER DEEPER MEANING
OVER TIME…

21. THE BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF THE MIND IS THE
PERSONALISATION OF THE BRAIN THROUGH UNIQUE
DYNAMIC CONFIGURATIONS OF NEURONAL
CONNECTIONS,
DRIVEN BY UNIQUE EXPERIENCES

22. LOSING THE MIND...

23. Arousal Addiction Reward

26. THE CASE OF PHINEAS GAGE:
Damage to Prefrontal Cortex
Led to Excessive Recklessness

27. Research Article
Inverse Association Between BMI and Prefrontal Metabolic Activity In Healthy Adults
Volkow ND, Wang GJ, Telang F, Fowler JS, Goldstein RZ, Alia-Klein N, Logan J, Wong C,
Thanos PK, Ma Y, Pradhan K.
How to cite: Obesity (2009) Inverse Association Between BMI and Prefrontal Metabolic Activity In Healthy Adults. (1):60-5. doi:
10.1038/oby.2008.469. Epub 2008 Oct 23.
Research Article
Decision-Making in Obesity: A Study using the Gambling
Pignatti R, Bertella L, Albani G, Mauro A, Molinari E, Semenza C.
How to cite: Eat Weight Disord. (2006) Decision-Making in Obesity: A Study using the Gambling
11(3):126-32

28. WITHOUT
SCHIZOPHRENIA
WITH
SCHIZOPHRENIA

29. A COMMON FACTOR:
The Press of the Senses?

30. Having a sensational time
Letting yourself go…
UNDER-ACTIVE PREFRONAL CORTEX...

31. ‘MEANINGLESS’
PREFRONTAL UNDER-FUNCTION?
Strong feelings
Sensory
Here-and-now
External stimuli dominant
Little ‘meaning’
Reduced sense of self
No time-space
Infants and children
More
‘MEANINGFUL’
PREFRONTAL ACTIVATION?
Thinking dominates
Cognitive
Past / present / future
Internal stimuli dominant
Personalised ‘meaning’
Strong sense of self
Clear time-space reference
Older children and adults
Less
TWO BASIC MODES FOR THE HUMAN BRAIN

32. ‘MEANINGLESS’
PREFRONTAL UNDER-FUNCTION?
Strong feelings
Sensory
Here-and-now
External stimuli dominant
Little ‘meaning’
Reduced sense of self
No time-space
Infants and children
More
‘MEANINGFUL’
PREFRONTAL ACTIVATION?
Thinking dominates
Cognitive
Past / present / future
Internal stimuli dominant
Personalised ‘meaning’
Strong sense of self
Clear time-space reference
Older children and adults
Less
TWO BASIC MODES FOR THE HUMAN BRAIN

33. In 11 studies, we found that participants typically did
not enjoy spending 6 to 15 minutes in a room by themselves
with nothing to do but think, that they enjoyed doing
mundane external activities much more, and that many
preferred to administer electric shocks to themselves instead
of being left alone with their thoughts. Most people seem to
prefer to be doing something rather than nothing, even if that
something is negative.
THE MINDSET OF THE FUTURE
Wilson et al. (2014) Science July 4th

36. UNCONSCIOUSNESS IS VARIABLE…

37. IN SEARCH OF A PROCESS...
…Where Consciousness is continuously variable

38. NEURONAL ASSEMBLIES..
Variable, transient (subsecond), macro-scale groups of neurons
(>10 million) not confined to/defined by anatomical brain
regions/systems.
‘RIPPLES’ IN THE BRAIN

39. NEURONAL ASSEMBLIES
Badin & Greenfield

40. FORCE OF THROW OF STONE

41. Baboon
Camel
Rabbit
Squirrel
Human
Cat
Monkey
NO ANATOMICAL RUBICON….

42. GENTLER RIPPLES: SMALLER ASSEMBLIES

43. WEAKLY THROWN STONE

44. SIZE OF STONE

45. STATES OF AROUSAL…

46. THE NEUROCHEMISTRY OF AROUSAL

47. VISCOSITY OF FLUID:
ACTION OF CHEMICAL MODULATORS

48. STATES OF PAIN..

49. FEATURES OF PAIN PERCEPTION
• Depression (large assembly state): low threshold
• Schizophrenia (small assembly state): high threshold
• Pain expressed as other associations
• Diurnal threshold
• Greater anticipation, greater the pain
• Phantom limb (neuron matrix)
• Morphine, pain no longer ‘matters’
• Morphine (analgesic), dream like euphoria
• Absent in dreams (small assembly state?)

50. THE LARGER THE ASSEMBLY ,
THE GREATER THE PAIN AND VICE VERSA...

51. Depolarisation(%change)
STATES OF ANAESTHESIA

52. ANAESTHESIA NOT ALL-OR-NONE.........

53. Light anaesthesia
Deep anaesthesia
Depolarisation(%change)
EFFECT OF ANAESTHETIC DEPTH ON ASSEMBLY DYNAMICS
(Devonshire et al., 2010)

54. Depolarisation(%change)
ACTION ON DYNAMICS OF ASSEMBLIES

55. OPTICAL IMAGING COULD REVEAL FACTORS
GOVERNING FORMATION OF TRANSIENT NEURONAL
ASSEMBLIES
The model could be tested as a means
of linking phenomenology and physiology

56. FACTORS INFLUENCING FORMATION OF
NEURONAL ASSEMBLY
• Degree of neuronal activity: Intensity of senses
• Extent of pre-existing associations: ‘Significance’
• Availability of modulators: Arousal
• Availability of other modulators: Predisposition / mood
• Formation of competing assemblies: Distraction
• Input from prefrontal cortex: Narrative

57. Neuronal
Connectivity
Trigger
Amine
modulator
Assembly
Turnover
Assembly
size
Physiology
Very extensive Strong High Low Large Pain
Extensive Strong Low Low Large Meditation
Extensive Weak Low Low Small Dreaming
Sparse Strong High High Small Childhood
Extensive Strong Medium Low Large
Abstract
thought
Very extensive Strong Low Very low Large Depression
Sparse Strong High Low Small
Alzheimer’s
Disease
Very extensive Strong High Low Large Anxiety
Extensive Strong High High Small Schizophrenia
Extensive Strong High High Small Fear
Age/species/mind
+Stimulus/+stren
gth/significance
+Thrill +Distraction
Degree of
consciousness
Phenomenology

60. “Even so, mankind will suffer badly from the disease of
boredom, a disease spreading more widely each year and
growing in intensity. This will have serious mental, emotional
and sociological consequences, and I dare say that psychiatry
will be far and away the most important medical specialty in
2014. The lucky few who can be involved in creative work of
any sort will be the true elite of mankind, for they alone will
do more than serve a machine.”
ISAAC ASIMOV, 1964

61. SEARCH ENGINES:
Information Vs Knowledge?

62. ‘Now, what I want is, Facts.
Teach these boys and girls
nothing but Facts. Facts alone
are wanted in life. Plant
nothing else, and root out
everything else. You can only
form the minds of reasoning
animals upon Facts: nothing
else will ever be of any service
to them’.
Thomas Gradgrind

64. ‘I worry that the sort of overwhelming rapidity of
information…is in fact affecting cognition. It is affecting
deeper thinking. I still believe that sitting down and reading a
book is the best way to really learn something. And I worry
that we’re losing that…’
ERIC SCHMIDT
(Chairman, Google)

65. PRINCESS MARYA…

66. ‘From the moment we become aware of others, we demand to
be told stories that allow us to make sense of the world, to
inhabit the mind of someone else. In old age we tell stories to
make small museums of memory. It matters not whether the
stories are true or imaginary.
The narrative, whether oral or written, is a staple of every
culture the world over. But stories demand time and
concentration; the narrative does not simply transmit
information, but invites the reader or listener to witness the
unfolding of events’.
BEN MACINTYRE

68. (I) Premium on de-constructing/ challenging dogma
THE 3 STEPS TO CREATIVITY

69. THE 3 STEPS TO CREATIVITY
(I) Premium on de-constructing/ challenging dogma
(II) Unusual associations

70. THE 3 STEPS TO CREATIVITY
(I) Premium on de-constructing
(II) Unusual associations
BUT ALSO
(III) These new associations activate more extensive
connections (‘have a meaning’).

73. Talk presented at the 19th International Interdisciplinary Seminar
What differentiates human persons from animals and machines?
Netherhall House, London, 5-1-2017