Many futurists predict that one day we'll upload our minds into computers, where we'll romp around in virtual reality environments. That's possible — but there are still a number of thorny issues to consider. Here are eight reasons why your brain may never be digitized.
Do zombies experience consciousness?
In most pop-zombie lore, zombies have been infected with a contagion that turns them into mindless, soulless monsters on the hunt for human flesh. Even if a reanimated corpse used to be your mother/father/brother/girlfriend/BFF, now it's a zombie, and it has to die. End of story. But the latest film in the zombie…
These 19th-century diagrams were one man's attempt to illustrate human…
Could you represent the stages of human consciousness with a diagram? In the late 19th century, New Zealand psychologist Benjamin Betts tried to apply mathematics to the problem of visualizing human consciousness. What he produced were striking, almost floral designs that he believed represented the shape of out…
A new tool that could help us measure awareness in comatose patients
One of the more frustrating aspects of treating patients who are in a vegetative or minimally conscious state is that we really have no idea just how conscious or unconscious they really are. As a consequence, medical practitioners are left guessing about how to best treat their patients, while family members struggle …
Neuroscientists take aim at Naomi Wolf's theory of the "conscious vagina"
Well, if Naomi Wolf wanted to draw attention to herself through the publication of her new book, Vagina: A New Biography, she has certainly succeeded — though it may not be the kind of attention she was hoping for. A number of commentators have taken exception to her unfortunate foray into neuroscience, particularly…
Prominent scientists sign declaration that animals have conscious…
An international group of prominent scientists has signed The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness in which they are proclaiming their support for the idea that animals are conscious and aware to the degree that humans are — a list of animals that includes all mammals, birds, and even the octopus. But will this make …
Rare neurological patient shows that self-awareness does not require a …
Neuroscientists who study consciousness have suggested that self-awareness depends on the presence of very specific "higher order" regions of the brain. In turn, that means that any serious impairment to these critical areas would virtually eliminate any sense someone has of themselves as a separate person. At least,…
This man can read the minds of vegetative patients
Neuroscientist Adrian Owen estimates that 20 percent of patients in a so-called "vegetative state" are, in fact, capable of communicating with the outside world. This is not a delusion. Using brain imaging techniques like fMRI, Owen — pictured above — has provided some remarkably compelling evidence that "non-responsive"…
Do these conjoined twins share consciousness?
Susan Dominus has penned a remarkable piece for the New York Times about Krista and Tatiana Hogan, the 4-year old conjoined twin girls from British Columbia who are attached at the head. Scans show that the two girls have brains that are interconnected by a never-seen-before "thalamic bridge," an indication that they…
Anesthesia unlocks a more primitive level of consciousness
If you've ever been put under anesthesia, you might recall a disoriented, almost delirious sensation as you wake back up. That feeling is more than simple post-surgery confusion: it's actually the brain reverting to a more primitive evolutionary state.
