The Astonishing Hypothesis

The study of consciousness is a scientific problem.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

Philosophers have had such a poor record over the last two thousand years that they would do better to show a certain modesty rather than the lofty superiority that they usually display.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

Not only do the beliefs of most popular religions contradict each other but... they are based on evidence so flimsy that only an act of blind faith can make them acceptable.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

If revealed religions have revealed anything it is that they are usually wrong.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

I myself find it difficult at times to avoid the idea of a homunculus. ...you cannot be aware of a defect in your brain unless there are neurons whose firing symbolizes that defect. There is no separate "I" who can recognize the defect independent of neural firing.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

Our ... assumption was that once the visual system is fully understood, the more fascinating aspect of the "soul" will be much easier to study.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

New knowledge has not diminished our sense of awe but increased it immeasurably.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

It is unlikely that the Astonishing Hypothesis, if it turns out to be true, will be universally accepted unless it can be presented in such a way that it appeals to people's... need for a coherent view of the world and themselves in terms they can easily understand. It is ironic that while science aims at exactly such a universal view, many people find much of our present scientific understanding too inhuman and too difficult to understand.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

If the scientific facts... support the Astonishing Hypothesis, then it will be possible to argue that the idea that man has a disembodied soul is as unnecessary as the old idea that there was a Life Force.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

Our highly developed brains... were not evolved under the pressure of discovering scientific truths but only to enable us to be clever enough to survive and leave descendants.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

The single most characteristic human ability is that we can handle a complex language fluently. We can use words to denote not only objects and events in the outside world but also more abstract concepts. This ability leads to... our limitless capacity for self-deception. ...without the discipline of scientific research, we shall often jump to wrong conclusions ...

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

Modern computers... can simulate only a relatively small number of... neurons and their interconnections. Nevertheless, these primitive models... often show surprising behavior, not unlike some of the behavior of the brain. They help provide us with new ways of thinking about how the brain works.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

What is the "neural correlate" of visual awareness?

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

The brain's operating system is probably not cleanly located in one special place. ...It may involve separate parts of the brain interacting together, and the active information in one of these parts may be distributed over many neurons.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

Recall the old line: How do I know what I think till I hear what I say.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

Consciousness can undoubtedly take many forms, depending on which parts of the cortex are involved.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

What is the "neural correlate" of consciousness?

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

Our experience of perceptual unity... suggests that the brain in some way binds... all those neurons actively responding to different aspects of a perceived object. ...neurons that respond to the motion... hue... words... and possibly the memory traces associated with knowing whose face it is all have to be "bound" together... as neurons that jointly generate the perception...

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

What is especially unclear is whether, in focused awareness, we are conscious of only one object at a time, or whether our brains can deal with several objects simultaneously.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

Attention... is not just a psychological concept. Its effects can be seen at the neuronal level.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

Any experimental work on consciousness has, in the past, been looked on with grave suspicion, not only by psychologists and neuroscientists but by the medical profession.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

In the somatosensory system, a weak or brief signal can influence behavior without producing awareness, while a stronger one... can make awareness occur.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

The real world is constantly there, so the brain can refer to it to check any provisional judgements it may have made...

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

Although the dendrites and axon of a neuron often extend over several layers, the layer in which its soma is located is probably determined genetically... (The details of the neuron's connections, on the other hand, are greatly influenced by experience.)

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

For neurons, the mechanism is likely to be a winner-take-all process... that is ...only one (or a few) ...fires more vigorously ...while all the others are forced to fire more slowly or not at all.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

Memory can be of two general types. When you are actively remembering something there must be neurons firing... However... latent memories will not, in general, require the relevant neurons to be firing. The memory is stored... because the strength of many synaptic connections were altered... in such a way that the requisite neural activity could be regenerated, given a suitable clue.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

When an axonal spike arrives at a synapse it alters the synapse almost instantaneously, so that its synaptic strength is increased. ...The increase in synaptic strength then decays ...These are the sort of times involved in short-term memory.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

Some neurons in the visual cortex fire in a somewhat rhythmical manner when they become active due to a suitable stimulus in the visual field. ...synchrony can occur between neurons in different cortical areas and also... between the two halves of the cortex.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

Synchronized [neuron] firing on, or near, the beat of gamma oscillation might be the neural correlate of visual awareness.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

There may be several forms of visual awareness and, by extension, even more forms of consciousness in general.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

An idea I call the Processing Postulate states that each level of visual processing is coordinated by a single thalamic region. ...Not enough is yet known... to decide whether the Processing Postulate is true or not.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

We may be using the terms conscious and unconscious for too many somewhat distinct activities.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

The idea that the thalamus is a key player in consciousness is not a new one. It was suggested much earlier Wilder Penfield. ...James Newman and Bernard Baars have extended the latter's ideas...

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

If the thalamus is indeed the key to consciousness, the reticular nucleus is likely to play some part in the control of consciousness.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

Each set of... cortical areas is strongly connected to just one small region of the thalamus. Such a region coordinates the activities of its associated cortical areas by synchronizing their firing.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

So much for a plausible model. I hope nobody will call it the Crick Theory of Consciousness. ...If anyone else produced it I would unhesitatingly condemn it as a house of cards. Touch it, and it collapses.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

The correct way to conceptualize consciousness has not yet been discovered and... we are merely groping our way toward it.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

It is premature to try to describe how the brain really works using just a black-box approach, especially when it is couched in the language of common words or the language of a digital programmable computer. ...To understand the brain you must understand the neurons and especially how vast numbers of them act together in parallel.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

The mysterious aspects of consciousness might disappear, just as the mysterious apects of embryology have largely disappeared now that we know the capabilities of DNA, RNA, and protein.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

Until we understand what makes us conscious, we are not likely to... design the right sort of artificial machine or to arrive at firm conclusions about consciousness in lower animals.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis

You cannot successfully pursue a difficult problem... without some preconceived ideas to guide you. ...But to a scientist these are only provisional beliefs. He does not have a blind faith in them.

— The Astonishing Hypothesis