In the text, The Eureka Phenomenon, by Isaac Asimov disuses the uses for unconscious thinking and how they have helped and shaped many revolutionary ideas throughout history. To get the reader to understand his thought process Aismov gives many examples such as an example of himself. He was a writer and when he would "write himself in a hole" he would participate in things that would take his mind off the task at hand. . . such as watching a movie. As he watched a movie that didn't take much thought the answer would reveal itself every time. Asimov explains it as how humans breathe and that when you are holding your breath the body is in full awareness and organs start to tense up, but when you let out all of the air the body goes back to breathing …show more content…
that yields no solution and conscious thinking will not help you." No matter how much thinking you do if you are stuck thinking about it for long periods of time will not help you. The real answer will come to you when you think you are not thinking. By taking your mind off the bigger picture you will discover the answer while doing a task that is unrelated to the subject. This is what made Asimov develope the Wureka Phenomenon. Asimov further explained this by giving the reader multiple examples one of them being the crown made for Hieron II. The king was afraid that he had been tricked and that all of the gold he had given to the goldsmith hadn't all been used in his crown and substituted with an inferior metal, copper that was much less valuable. Archimedes, a Greek scientist and philosopher, was called in on the problem. At the time the only way to measure volume was to completely destroy the crown but the king would not allow that. Archimedes pondered how he would change the way to measure volume and got nowhere. He went to the public baths and noticed how water splashes out when he gets in the bath. As the water spilled out he discovered the modern use of finding volume in irregular objects such as a crown.
Chapter 4 discusses the several states of consciousness: the nature of consciousness, sleep and dreams, psychoactive drugs, hypnosis, and meditation. Consciousness is a crucial part of human experience, it represents that private inner mind where we think, feel, plan, wish, pray, omagine, and quietly relive experiences. William James described the mind as a stream of consciousness, a continuous flow of changing sensations, images thoughts, and feelings. Consciousness has two major parts: awareness and arousal. Awareness includes the awareness of the self and thoughts about one's experiences. Arousal is the physiological state of being engaged with the environment. Theory of mind refers to individuals understanding that they and others think,
The Little Albert experiment has become a widely known case study that is continuously discussed by a large number of psychology professionals. In 1920, behaviorist John Watson and his assistant Rosalie Rayner began to conduct one of the first experiments done with a child. Stability played a major factor in choosing Albert for this case study, as Watson wanted to ensure that they would do as little harm as possible during the experiment. Watson’s method of choice for this experiment was to use principles of classic conditioning to create a stimulus in children that would result in fear. Since Watson wanted to condition Albert, a variety of objects were used that would otherwise not scare him. These objects included a white rat, blocks, a rabbit, a dog, a fur coat, wool, and a Santa Claus mask. Albert’s conditioning began with a series of emotional tests that became part of a routine in which Watson and Rayner were determining whether other stimuli’s could cause fear.
Eagleman talks about unconscious learning, and explores how much of what we do daily is learned and directed by the unconscious mind. The first example is changing lanes: when we’re driving, we do it without thinking. However, when asked to describe how they change lanes, many people are flummoxed. Changing lanes is so automatic that when the conscious mind tries to take control, it confuses our brains and our gears become out of sync. The second example is chicken sexers: people who can sort chick hatching even though male and female chicks look exactly alike. The third example is plane spotters: people who could distinguish between enemy and ally planes thousands of feet in the air. In both cases, the people just knew! They couldn’t explain how they knew. Rather, after trial and error, their unconscious picked up on the slight cues that allowed to them tell the difference. The conscious mind, on the other hand, was unaware of this
In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley deftly creates a society that is indeed quite stable. Although they are being mentally manipulated, the members of this world are content with their lives, and the presence of serious conflict is minimal, if not nonexistent. For the most part, the members of this society have complete respect and trust in their superiors, and those who don’t are dealt with in a peaceful manner as to keep both society and the heretic happy. Maintained by cultural values, mental conditioning, and segregation, the idea of social stability as demonstrated in Brave New World is, in my opinion, both insightful and intriguing.
The unconscious mind can be explained in various ways and can take on various attributes. Carl Jung the author of “The Archetype and the Collective Unconscious,” defines unconsciousness as the first reactions and interactions a person endeavors. Several Physicists believe that the unconscious mind acts separately from our voluntary thinking. Scientist believes that understanding the unconscious mind is key to determining what type of archetype a person may have or develop. Experiments such as, reaction to stimuli, have lead cognitive psychiatrist to determine the strength of the unaware and involuntary mind. In addition, many social physicists have also believed that the unconscious mind is unaware of it actions and that the unconscious part of our brain can sometimes be focused on several signs that our conscious self can’t see.
The original source of the concept of consciousness is considered to come from the English Philosopher John Locke who perceived the term to be “the perception of what passes in a man’s own mind” (Locke 1690). The challenge of defining the term is even considered daunting as it is still found to be difficult in giving a specific definition. Although, most psychologists appreciate that there is a basic broad understanding of the term, that being: the general awareness of an individual whilst awake. There has not yet been an ultimate and concluding definition. This is demonstrated by Francis Crick and Christoff Koch (as cited in Güzeldere, 1997) who stated ‘they need not provide a precise definition of consciousness since everyone has a rough idea of what is meant by consciousness', this was written in 1990, a far more recent indication of consciousness still being free from complete human understanding, even the greatest minds have struggled with Sigmund Freud (as cited in Güzeldere, 1997) declaring “What is meant by consciousness we need not discuss; it is beyond all doubt.”
The notion of Consciousness took various definitions through time and even today it still doesn’t have a general accepted definition. A more universal one would be that Consciousness is a state of awareness of one’s surroundings, of the external objects around, or being aware of oneself. From a more psychological perspective, Consciousness represents a state characterized by perceptions, sensations, emotions, thoughts, where the individual is aware of what he sees, feels, thinks and observes himself, those around him and the environment.
Sleep is not the only way ideas come to us. Whenever we are envolved in a
Unconsciousness is the inability to know what you are doing, you are no longer aware of your actions and although we are completely alert of what is going on in our conscious mind, we have no clue what material we retain and store in our unconscious mind. Our unconsciousness is filled with all sorts of considerable and disturbing information, in which we suppress from our awareness because the thoughts are too ominous to fully accept. The unconscious doesn’t store insignificant information; but because of the power the unconscious can hold and the fear humans have for it we indirectly choose to keep it hidden.
Life as we know it comes and goes. Many, many years have past and the world that we are now living in has undergone several transformations. The story of "The Last Question" is about the future of civilization. It explored the technological advancements that will probably occur many years from now. But even if man had developed ways to make things "happen", a question was never answered until man and all other forms disappeared except the AC (automatic computer). "The Last Question" explored the scientific possibilities of life and showed us that even if we have attained the highest technological possibility there is, in this universe nothing can last forever. But with the helped of computers, something can still be done.
The consciousness wouldn’t just instantly happen, it would be something that would develop over time in the AI.
“Consciousness is defined as everything of which we are aware at any given time - our thoughts, feelings, sensations, and perceptions of the external environment. Physiological researchers have returned to the study of consciousness, in examining physiological rhythms, sleep, and altered states of consciousness (changes in awareness produced by sleep, meditation, hypnosis, and drugs)” (Wood, 2011, 169). There are five levels of consciousness; Conscious (sensing, perceiving, and choosing), Preconscious (memories that we can access), Unconscious ( memories that we can not access), Non-conscious ( bodily functions without sensation), and Subconscious ( “inner child,” self image formed in early childhood).
Based on Professor Simone Glynn’s lectures consciousness is where impressions, dreams, memories, values and fantasies exist. Physically, It is the results of a chemical simulation of the brain; when physical things are structured in a certain way, it creates or gives rise to consciousness; emergent property.
Lucid dreaming is a phenomenon that has plagued the world since the beginning of time. The idea of Lucidity in dreams has been shunned until the recently in the 21st century, but what is it? With the help of Gavin Lane and Matthew Gatton, we will delve into the mystery that is Lucid Dreaming: the subconscious effect on our conscious minds.
Their knowledge in the unconscious system is repressed and unavailable to consciousness without overcoming resistance (e.g., defense mechanisms). Thereby, the repression does not allow unconscious knowledge to be completely aware; rather, it is construed by means of concealing and compromise, but only interpretable through its derivatives dream and parapraxes that overcome resistance by means of disguise and compromise. Within the preconscious system, the contents could be accessible, although only a small portion at any given moment. Unconscious thought is characterized by primary process thinking that lacks negation or logical connections and favors the over-inclusions and 'just-as' relationships evident in condensed dream images and displacements. Freud asserted that primary process of thinking was phylogenetically, and continues to be ontogenetically, prior to secondary process or logical thought, acquired later in childhood and familiar to us in our waking life (1900, 1915a).