Is Consciousness a Passive Recipient of the End-Product of Sophisticated Unconscious Computations?

Pierre Perruchet,Bénédicte Poulin-Charronnat

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00413

Abstract

Is Consciousness a Passive Recipient of the End-Product of Sophisticated Unconscious Computations?

Highlights

A commentary on Whatever next? Predictive brains, situated agents, and the future of cognitive science by Clark, A
The “hierarchical prediction machine” approach proposed by Clark shares with the standard computationalism the postulate of a powerful cognitive unconscious that “does the job.”
Where is the mischievous sprite that prevents us from gaining deliberate access to the marvelous device that advocates of a Bayesian brain and other cognitive scientists imagine?

Summary

Introduction

A commentary on Whatever next? Predictive brains, situated agents, and the future of cognitive science by Clark, A. (in press). Brain Sci. The “hierarchical prediction machine” approach proposed by Clark shares with the standard computationalism the postulate of a powerful cognitive unconscious that “does the job.” All the possible options about the current percept are assumed to be computed and ordered as a function of their probability outside of any conscious experience, and, as we understand the approach, conscious thought is nothing else as the passive recipient of the ready-to-use end-result of the computation of multiple probability distributions.

Results

Conclusion