Abstract
A scientific study of consciousness should take into consideration both objective and subjective measures of conscious experiences. To this date, very few studies have tried to integrate third-person data, or data about the neurophysiological correlates of conscious states, with first-person data, or data about subjective experience. Inspired by Morel's invention (Casares, 1940), a literary machine capable of reproducing sensory-dependent external reality, this article suggests that combination of virtual reality techniques and brain reading technologies, that is, decoding of conscious states by brain activity alone, can offer this integration. It is also proposed that the multimodal, simulating, and integrative capacities of the dreaming brain render it an “endogenous” Morel's machine, which can potentially be used in studying consciousness, but not always in a reliable way. Both the literary machine and dreaming could contribute to a better understanding of conscious states.
Highlights
THE SCIENCE OF SUBJECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS Conscious states are inner states and processes of awareness, with undeniable neurobiological underpinnings (Searle, 2000)
Most theories of consciousness assert that all conscious experiences have specific qualitative attributes that differentiate them from each other, and a unified nature, which cannot be reduced to independent components (Tononi, 2008)
It has been proposed that a science of consciousness should systematically integrate third-person data, or data about the neurophysiological correlates of conscious states, with first-person data, or data about the distinctive qualities of subjective experience (Chalmers, 2004)
Summary
Reviewed by: Britt Anderson, Brown University, USA Aldo Ragazzoni, University of Florence, Italy. A scientific study of consciousness should take into consideration both objective and subjective measures of conscious experiences To this date, very few studies have tried to integrate third-person data, or data about the neurophysiological correlates of conscious states, with first-person data, or data about subjective experience. It is proposed that the multimodal, simulating, and integrative capacities of the dreaming brain render it an “endogenous” Morel’s machine, which can potentially be used in studying consciousness, but not always in a reliable way. Both the literary machine and dreaming could contribute to a better understanding of conscious states
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