Self-Consciousness: The Hidden Internal State of Digital Circuits

SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS,

THE HIDDEN INTERNAL STATE OF DIGITAL CIRCUITS

MASAKAZU SHOJI

iUniverse LLC

Bloomington

SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS,

THE HIDDEN INTERNAL STATE OF DIGITAL CIRCUITS

Copyright © 2013 Masakazu Shoji.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-0183-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-0184-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-0185-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013913896

iUniverse rev. date: 07/31/2013

CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter 1   Self-conscious brain, overview

1.01 Introduction

1.02 General approach

1.03 Basic assumptions

1.04 Symbolic existence, SELF

1.05 From inside and from outside

1.06 Internal image

1.07 Brain hardware development

1.08 Functional model

1.09 Block diagram of self-conscious brain

1.10 Where is the SELF?

1.11 Elementary excitation in self-conscious state

1.12 Brain’s data types

1.13 Bus architecture of internal image circuit

1.14 Modes, overview

1.15 Modes, feedback and signal

1.16 Neuron circuit modes

1.17 Sub-critical oscillator

1.18 Structure of support system

1.19 Abstract meaning complex

1.20 Action control and decode area

Chapter 2   Internal image

2.01 Introduction

2.02 Image of external world inside

2.03 SELF’s self-image

2.04 Active abstract meaning SELF

2.05 Autonomy, self-image of SELF

2.06 Internal image display and sense

2.07 Image output operation for recognition

2.08 Anthropomorphism

2.09 Photographic image

2.10 Mechanism of photographic image

2.11 Buildup of internal image

2.12 Line of sight

2.13 Logic circuit overview

2.14 Assembly area logic

2.15 Error-correction logic

2.16 Learning pronunciation

2.17 Superposed internal individual

2.18 Hardware implementation

2.19 Bus-oriented structure

2.20 Association area

2.21 Action control area and output channel

2.22 Neuron circuit matrix and its operation

2.23 Vision channel analyzer/3-dimensional image

2.24 Voice/language channel

Chapter 3   Self-consciousness and the body

3.01 Introduction

3.02 Why did the upper level SELF emerge?

3.03 Lower level SELF

3.04 Internal images from the sense of the body

3.05 Multiple signal recognition

3.06 Lower level SELF’s operation

3.07 Sensation and image

3.08 Human mind facing impossibility

3.09 Where is the SELF-2

3.10 SELF in the underworld

3.11 Anthropomorphism including the body’s sense

3.12 Support system’s characteristics

3.13 Sense of SELF

3.14 Sense of SELF-2

3.15 Self-consciousness and economics

3.16 SELF of social self-consciousness

3.17 SELF’s visual image

3.18 A knows B and B knows A

3.19 A knows B, B knows C, and so on

3.20 Internal image flow

3.21 Self-consciousness and intelligence

3.22 Life of the human-machine, and sense of time

3.23 SELF and free energy

3.24 Conclusion

Special terms

PREFACE

The objective of this book is to carry out a conceptual design of a model of the self-conscious human brain, to study how the model works, and to understand the mechanism of self-consciousness. Self-consciousness has been a mystery since the beginning of history. This mystery cannot be resolved by conventional natural science, since the objective observation of the self-conscious state has been considered impossible. Few agreements have been reached about its origin, nature, and mechanism. The nature of the subject, felt to exist in the self-conscious state, is at the center of the mystery. I call this subject SELF.

I believe that time has come to squarely face the mystery of self-consciousness. Modern society has isolated all its members from each other under the banner of freedom, and made them helpless. The self-consciousness study helps everyone understand themselves, and restores identity. In highly institutionalized modern science, there are few frontiers, and a creative mind is trapped in a hopeless state. A self-consciousness study is the most challenging intellectual frontier. I studied this problem for many years, in order to accomplish a modest objective, to narrow the range of uncertainties of the mystery, and I previously published a book on the subject.

Since then, I reviewed my work, and felt that the mystery of self-consciousness requires a somewhat different explanation for general readers not familiar with the electronics technology, on which my first work is based. I will try to persuade my readers of a simple fact, that human self-consciousness is not a mystery, once we accept that the human brain and body are a biological machine. I will push this idea to the limit, by showing an actual design of the human-machine brain and body, and by explaining its operation. Once a machine which reproduce major features of human psyche is designed, the machine operation must reveal many details of its operation, which can be checked by psychological observation. The design can then be improved by including more details. The design presented in this book was reached by improving the design in my previous book. I will show in detail, how the machine works to create self-consciousness. The machine is rather simple, but its operation is complex, and it reveals many subtle features of human psychology. It is not my intention, to design an intelligent machine. Intelligence and self-consciousness are different concepts. Intelligence emerges from self-consciousness, but not vice versa. This tricky point is often missed.

Self-consciousness appears mysterious. I struggled with this mystery like an archaeologist. In archaeology, debris must be examined one by one, to restore an ancient city. In this book, I explain self-consciousness and the internal subject SELF from many directions, examples, analogies and so on, and I did not avoid overlapping and repetition. I believe that mass of such explanation is the only way to convince skeptical readers. I often relied on clumsy, yet illuminating explanations.

Self-consciousness study began in the East with the Taoists in China in the period of 400-300BC, and in India in the period of 100 to 300AD, by the Mahayana Buddhists. These early philosopher’s views are amazingly consistent with the insights gained from the human-machine model. They believed that there is no identifiable self-conscious subject in the human mind. My conclusions agree with theirs, and are only one tiny step ahead. The energy driving the brain’s machinery is the SELF’s only real substance. This physically rational and inevitable conclusion was far from obvious, and it reveals many details. I must now ask, what is energy? We do know energy’s various forms, but what really is it? is still not known. SELF is mysterious, since so is energy. Let me point out that energy is far more mysterious than entropy, a concept that often tortures physics students.

December 19, 2009 was the 300 th birthday of Julien Offray DelaMettrie, whose Human machine was my modern takeoff point of the self-consciousness study. I stressed the key role of the Darwinian model of evolution of human brain and body development. Evolution by natural selection is the exact parallel to the modern information processing system development. My past expertise in the area motivated and guided this work, This is a scientific detective work of the mystery called self-consciousness and the subject in the state, variously called as ego, soul, psyche, etc., which I call by a short term, SELF.

The main subject of this book is my own human machine design, preliminarily presented in my book "M. Shoji, ‘Neuron circuits, electronic circuits and self-consciousness’, Vantage Press, New York, N.Y., 2009. This book presents a much more advanced design and more detailed explanation of its operation, and is self-contained. Yet, an interested reader is referred to the previous book. Other references are given in the proper part of the text.

I use a special notation in this book. A meaning or image which exists in the brain’s memory is shown by < . . . > sign. For instance, if activation of a memory creates the sense of fear, the memory and its activity are designated by writing . Similarly, if activation of another memory displays the image of hibiscus flower, the memory and its activity is written as . This notation is convenient, since it represents the hardware base of brain activity clearly.

I acknowledge the support and help of my wife Marika, a professional psychotherapist. Her support, help and discussion on the subject from a different viewpoint were invaluable. I owe her editing of my original text of this book, as English is not my native language.

CHAPTER 1

Self-conscious brain,

overview

1.01 Introduction

Since the beginning of history, self-consciousness has been a mystery, and its study was unpopular in the West. In the East, many studies were made, but mostly by philosophers, and their works require evaluation. In this century, I believe, the mystery must be resolved for the future of humanity. I have been working on this problem for many years, relying on what I believe, is the only valid approach, the human-machine concept. I have been pushing it to the limit, by actually designing a self-conscious human-machine. I published a preliminary work 5 years ago.

This book begins with a review of my previous work, and it presents a more detailed design. Using the machine model, I explain how and why a self-conscious human feels the mysterious subject inside, which I call the SELF, so strongly and so real in the self-conscious state. I explain how the designed model works, more precisely and more in detail than in my previous book (the book was written in the style of a scientific detective story, and I feel the explanation was elementary to cover the issue sufficiently). The book is Neuron circuits, electronic circuits and self-consciousness, Vantage Press, New York, N.Y., 2009.

The SELF is most often represented by the first person singular pronoun I. Is it really necessary to have I in basic human life? Was this I (the SELF) indigenous in the human mind? Or was it created culturally? I imagine human life since the upper paleolithic age. The upper paleolithic humans were the same species as modern humans. Since then, most, if not all the neolithic humans lived a similar mental life to their modern counterparts. Thus, my work includes imagining the present, without a writing system, technological means affecting human psyche, or modern ideological influences.

In person-to-person intimate conversation, the first person singular pronoun I is almost unnecessary. Subject-less statement is enough. In some languages of ancient origin like Polish, the pronoun is regularly omitted. Julius Caesar claimed, veni, vidi, vinci. Even in English conversation, an assumed subject is sufficient. Such must have been the practice of the upper paleolithic humans, until the advent of writing.

If I write a message to an invisible reader, it is a different matter. The pronoun is required, to identify the message’s writer to the readers, as well as the writer. Here, the name of the writer should work, but only for the readers. The writer feels as if the message came from the other person. If I is used in the subsequent sentences, the effect to the writer changes. The writer’s SELF emerges by reading it.

From this observation, the SELF existed before the advent of writing, but, the sense of the SELF intensified drastically, by the writing system. The sense of the modern SELF emerged first in the ruler, then in the privileged, and then in the commoner. In China, the Yin (1500BC-1100BC) scripts refer only to the Kings, the Chu (1100BC-700BC) scripts refer to the Kings and aristocrats, and the later scripts refer to everyone. The Maya scripts appear to have similar features. Then, practically, the SELF is a creation in the historical age. The invention of high quality mirrors (Section 3.17), and photography accelerated its unlimited growth. The original and the modern SELF are different, mostly by the intensity of the SELF’s image. This observation is supported by the fact that writing systems were invented by the rulers to serve themselves. There is not a single exception I know. Now, everyone is a ruler.

Thus, the SELF is predominantly a cultural creation. Humans used this as a symbol. Something vaguely existed in the original human mind now appears super-real. My objective is to describe its working mechanism in scientific terms. In animals below the level of humans, self-consciousness exists, but the SELF’s intensity is much weaker, and its effect is limited to the basics, such as self-defense and satisfaction of instinct.

1.02 General approach

Self-consciousness can be observed only by its owner, and any statement on its observation is considered subjective. Then, Its study is outside the domain of conventional natural science. I believe that its observation by its owner can be objective, as I discuss later (Section 2.16), but without stepping into this basic issue, I believe that this difficulty can be overcome by a new approach. I can observe my self-conscious state by introspection, and then create a machine model of the self-conscious brain, which in turn reproduces my introspective observation. Then, I am able to study the machine-brain model operation, and so identify the mechanism of creating my self-consciousness, and the subject SELF. Since the machine operation is clearly defined, the possibility of any hidden sanctuary in the real brain can be eliminated. If this study is repeated by several individuals, if or if not the hardware brain model matches, can be checked, and then the mechanism of self-consciousness can be defined in a narrow range of alternatives. I carried out this program for myself in my first book. In this book, I present a more complete design, and show how the model works in minute detail, and how the machine operation assures objective observation of the self-conscious state by introspection.

This procedure is analogous to the practice in microprocessor engineering. If company A produces a processor, a second source company B makes a processor which works in the same way in computer system. Company B looks at the company A’s processor from the outside, and makes a processor which carries out the same operation in the system’s level. My hardware model is built by looking at my self-conscious brain from the inside, and the model works in the same way as my brain. If the machine observes its operation also from the inside, it should see the same image, etc. as I do. Then, I believe that the mechanism of self-consciousness should be found in the operation of the model. Allegorically, the machine model is a mirror to reflect my brain operation, to make it visible to me. By using a mirror, I look at my own brain. Without a mirror, I am never able to know how I look (Section 3.17).

Another issue of study is this. If introspective observation of one’s own mind is used as evidence, the observation must be reported honestly. This requirement may risk one’s own privacy exposed. This is certainly impossible for respectable social individuals like academicians, This problem did exist, as described in the history of the difficult relations among the early founders of psychoanalysis schools. In the traditional Zen Buddhism culture, exposure of privacy did not affect personal prestige. Then, research of this kind belongs to private scientists, who need not worry about their own prestige or careers. I am one such scientist, whose single motivation is idle curiosity in the words of Thorstein Veblen.

1.03 Basic assumptions

My work is based on several assumptions. These assumptions are all rational and inevitable, if considered by an open mind.

(1) The human body and its operation, including the human mind, are a biological machine and its activity, respectively. This proposition has been made by La Mettrie 300 years ago. The human-machine follows strictly the laws of physics, chemistry and biology. Special position for the human in Nature cannot be claimed.

(2) The human body and mind are the creation of evolutionary development: the product of random variation of the genetic code which has been screened by the force of natural selection during one’s life. The body and brain hardware and their operation developed simultaneously.

(3) The human evolutionary development has an exact parallel to the development of the modern data processor, that is, repetition of design, test, choice and redesign. The evolutionary development can be simulated by the conceptual design of the human body and brain. If the evolutionary development is observed at each step of the progress, the brain-body design should be very close to what a rational designer thinks it should be. Once there is a design, the operation can be examined closely. The human mind operates in the same way as Nature does. A female bird chooses the most colorful male as partner, and often a man chooses the best-dressed woman,

(4) The signals in the brain are coded and ciphered. By attacking the signal directly, there is a slim chance of understanding anything.

(5) The plaintext message in the brain is the internal image. To access the brain’s activity, I must rely on introspective observation. The brain retains short term memory. What is felt at present by the brain is the images within its memory retention time. This allows reliable introspective observation of the brain’s state of the recent past (Section 3.22).

(6) Since it is possible to reproduce hardware carrying out similar operations as the human brain, study of the working mechanism of the hardware model provides the understanding of human self-consciousness and the subject SELF. The machine works exactly the same way as the human brain. Then, the machine must be self-conscious.

(7) (5) and (6) depend on the observation of one’s own mind, and it may still include personal bias. The bias can be removed by comparing the results of many trials as I did using different persons.

(8) The major question for human self-consciousness is the mysterious psychological subject in a person, which I call the SELF. I direct the thrust of my investigation to it. This strategy is better than addressing the less clearly defined self-consciousness. By doing so, I avoid confusion between self-consciousness and intelligence. Intelligence develops from self-consciousness, but not the other way around (Section 3.21). Yet, by setting the SELF as the target, a linguistic problem emerges. SELF in human mind can be described by language, but language is a product of the human mind. A sentence requires a subject, a verb and an object. The subject is demanded by grammar, but not by system operation. I must be careful in describing the SELF in language. Otherwise, I become an angry man beating a vending machine shouting, this ‘fellow’ stole my money.

(9) The hardware model and its operation must satisfy the other rational requirements from natural science. An important criteria is restricting the type of circuit used to build the brain hardware. Since the information handled by the brain, i.e., a visual image or sentence, is qualitative information, the brain must be built primarily from digital circuits. When the brain displays the information, energy must be consumed to power the internal activity. Then, the digital circuit’s HIGH (or 1) state should consume energy, while the LOW (or 0) state should not. Then, the circuit must use activity-no activity digital variable coding, as just the biological neuron circuit does. Maintenance of the digital circuit is carried out by the analog support circuit, which shares the same signals as the digital circuit, the action potential pulses. This book is self-contained, but some of the 9 assumptions are explained by elementary terms in my previous book.

1.04 Symbolic existence, SELF

The central theme of my study is the subject in the self-conscious state, the SELF. I use this word, not because I can prove its existence, but for the convenience of description. I use this term to represent the sum total of the neuron circuit’s activities creating the sense of the SELF’s existence. Some conclusions of this book must be given here, since otherwise it is hard to explain.

The SELF is a symbolic existence, which makes the human feel as if there were an identifiable subject of action and recognition inside. The SELF never exists as something which I can grab securely. It is no more than a train of action potential pulses (Section 1.16,1.17) in certain areas of the brain. When I say (SELF observes an image), what I mean is [there are activities which make the subject feel as if there were a humanoid in him, observing the activities representing the image]. My whole statement is of this kind. Here, . . . make the subject feel… is the crucial phrase. This statement means that there is a deception mechanism, which misleads the internal observation, recognition and comprehension. This feature of the human mind is not surprising: we are easily misled by magicians. In the art of magic, there are two types of misdirection; the physical misdirection (working in the process of information acquisition) and psychological misdirection (working in the process of analysis and comprehension). The SELF is, mostly created by psychological misdirection. In the process of normal brain operation, the misdirection occurs under certain conditions, and the SELF emerges, in the same way as the observer’s mind is misled as a magician performs the key steps of the magic. Thus, the SELF is only a mirage. Keeping this point in mind, I use the statement, since the 3 words in ( . . .) Are much simpler than the 24 words in [ . . . ].

Among the brain activities, some contribute more than others in creating the sense of the SELF. Activities attending to a crisis are of this kind, while activities observing a casual scene indifferently, are of another. Among there activities, the one creating strong sense is of interest. This observation suggests that the substance of the SELF is some kind of intensity, specified by an analog parameter. This is the sensation the person feels. The thrust of my study is to narrow down the range of uncertainties of the SELF-creating activity (where it is? How it does?). The activities in the internal image display circuit and its support circuit must create the SELF, since the rest of the areas (the input/output channel) are machines that execute rigidly defined functions, and cannot create any features characteristic of the SELF.

Symbolic nature of the SELF is observed from its development. If I ask what makes you feel yourself? to a young boy, he points at himself. His body is the symbol of his SELF. As he grows, he recognizes the cause-effect relationship in everything: he learns that an action creates a result, and that this is a generally valid rule of Nature, and of human society. This is my own experience, too. Then, I seek for an internal cause of my action, and reach the image of my SELF. Thereafter, the cause-effect thinking binds my mind. Generally, if event