for - question - how do you know when you are part of a larger cognitive system? - answer - adjacency - synchronicity - lower level example - two neurons talking to each other - Michael Levin - Mark Solms foundation theory of affect

question - how do you know when you are part of a larger cognitive system? - answer - adjacency - synchronicity - lower level example - two neurons talking to each other - Michael Levin - Mark Solms foundation theory of affect

adjacency - between - answer - synchronicity - lower level example - two neurons talking to each other - Michael Levin - Mark Solms foundational theory of affect - adjacency relationship - This is a very interesting question and Michael Levin provides a very interesting answer - First, it is very interesting that Mark Solms points out that affect is foundational to cognition - This is evident once we begin to think of the fundamental goals of any individual of any species is to optimize survival - The positive or negative affects that we feel are a feedback signal that measures how successful we are in our efforts to survive - Hence, it is more accurate to ask: - How do you know if and when you are part of a larger affective-cognitive system? - Levin illustrates the multi-level nature of simultaneous consciousness by looking at two neurons "in dialogue" with each other, and potentially speculating about a "higher level of consciousness", which is in fact, the level you and I operate at and take for granted - This speculative question is very important for it also can be generalized to the next layer up, - Do collectives of humans, each one experiencing itself a unified, cohesive inner perspective, constitute a higher level "collective consciousness"? - If we humans experience feelings and thinking whilst we have a well defined physical body, then - what does a society feel and think whilst not having such a well defined physical body?