Podcast appearances and mentions of Bernard J Baars

Join me for a discussion with Bernard J. Baars as we discuss consciousness science, global workspace theory, and more!

Bernard Baars is a pioneer in the neuroscience of consciousness. He first proposed Global Neuronal Workspace Theory back in 1980, which was before consciousness was considered an acceptable topic of scientific research. His approach inspired others including the current Global Neuronal Workspace Theory, which I discussed briefly in episode 160. This episode is an interview with Dr. Baars that focuses on his most recent book On Consciousness. He is joined by his colleague David Edeleman. Links and References: ON CONSCIOUSNESS: Science & Subjectivity - Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory by Bernard J. Baars On Consciousness podcast: on YouTube The Ancient Origins of Consciousness: How the Brain Created Experience by Todd E. Feinberg and Jon M. Mallatt (Dr. Mallatt was interviewed in BS 128.) Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts by Stanislas Dehaene (BS 160 and BS 167) Please visit http://brainsciencepodcast.com for additonal references and episode transcripts. Please Visit Our Sponsors: TextExpander at http://textexpander.com/podcast The Neurology Minute in your favorite podcasting app Announcements: November 17, 2020 at 4PM Eastern Time: Join Dr. Campbell for a special webinar entitled Embracing Uncertainty: How to Thrive in Uncertain Times. Click here to learn more. Brain Science comes out on 4th Friday each month. Support Brain Science by buying Are You Sure? The Unconscious Origins of Certainty by Virginia "Ginger" Campbell, MD Learn more ways to support Brain Science at http://brainsciencepodcast.com/donations Sign up for the free Brain Science Newsletter to get show notes automatically every month. You can also text brainscience to 55444 to sign up. Check out the free Brain Science Mobile app for iOS, Android, and Windows. (It's a great way to get both new episodes and premium content.) Send email to brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com or post voice feedback at http://speakpipe.com/docartemis. Connect on Social Media: Twitter: @docartemis Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/brainsciencepodcast Contact Dr. Campbell: Email: brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com Voicemail: http://speakpipe.com/docartemis

Podcast: Brain Science with Ginger Campbell, MD: Neuroscience for Everyone (LS 60 · TOP 0.5% what is this?)Episode: BS 177 Bernard Baars with David EdelmanPub date: 2020-10-23Bernard Baars is a pioneer in the neuroscience of consciousness. He first proposed Global Workspace Theory back in 1980, which was before consciousness was considered an acceptable topic of scientific research. His approach inspired others including the current Global Neuronal Workspace Theory, which I discussed briefly in episode 160. This episode is an interview with Dr. Baars that focuses on his most recent book On Consciousness. He is joined by his colleague David Edelman. Links and References: ON CONSCIOUSNESS: Science & Subjectivity - Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory by Bernard J. Baars On Consciousness podcast: on YouTube The Ancient Origins of Consciousness: How the Brain Created Experience by Todd E. Feinberg and Jon M. Mallatt (Dr. Mallatt was interviewed in BS 128.) Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts by Stanislas Dehaene (BS 160 and BS 167) Please visit http://brainsciencepodcast.com for additonal references and episode transcripts. Please Visit Our Sponsors: TextExpander at http://textexpander.com/podcast The Neurology Minute in your favorite podcasting app Announcements: November 17, 2020 at 4PM Eastern Time: Join Dr. Campbell for a special webinar entitled Embracing Uncertainty: How to Thrive in Uncertain Times. Click here to learn more. Brain Science comes out on 4th Friday each month. Support Brain Science by buying Are You Sure? The Unconscious Origins of Certainty by Virginia "Ginger" Campbell, MD Learn more ways to support Brain Science at http://brainsciencepodcast.com/donations Sign up for the free Brain Science Newsletter to get show notes automatically every month. You can also text brainscience to 55444 to sign up. Check out the free Brain Science Mobile app for iOS, Android, and Windows. (It's a great way to get both new episodes and premium content.) Send email to brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com or post voice feedback at http://speakpipe.com/docartemis. Connect on Social Media: Twitter: @docartemis Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/brainsciencepodcast Contact Dr. Campbell: Email: brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com Voicemail: http://speakpipe.com/docartemis The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ginger Campbell, MD, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

In this episode of "On Consciousness," neuroscientists Bernie Baars, Jeff Krichmar, and David Edelman engage in a freewheeling conversation that begins with mulling over the possible development of conscious machines -- or ‘conscious artifact,’ as Gerald Edelman put it -- sometime in the not-so-distant future. We unpack the various ‘bumps in the road’ in the quest to build intelligent, sentient machines--the problems of efficiency (with regard to energy utilization, brains run circles around any present-day computers) and dissipation of heat in increasingly miniaturized microcircuitry, among others. And though Bernie casts a critically important skeptic’s eye on the prospect of in silico conscious artifacts, we all eventually arrive at a sort of amicable consilience: a recognition that such a development is at least possible.After a tangential--but fun and diverting--foray into the thickets of human evolution and the serendipitous biocultural path that led to modern humans, we return to pondering the road leading to conscious artifacts. We conclude on an optimistic note, with the promise of the biologically based approach so steadfastly championed by Jeff and a small community of like-minded computational neuroscientists.Special Guest: Professor Jeff Krichmar, PhD, Department of Cognitive Sciences and the Department of Computer Sciences, University of California, Irvine: http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~jkrichmaHostsCognitive psychobiologist and originator of GWT Bernard J. Baars, Author of "ON CONSCIOUSNESS: Science & Subjectivity - Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory"Neuroscientist and paleoanthropologist David Edelman, PhD, Visiting Scholar, Dept of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College Special Podcast VIP 40% Discount for Bernie Baars' new book, "On Consciousness: Science & Subjectivity - Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory" - GO TO: https://shop.thenautiluspress.com/collections/baars APPLY CODE AT CHECKOUT: "PODCASTVIP" Talking Points:0:00 – David Edelman introduces himself and briefly describes his path to exploring consciousness (particularly in animals), starting as a human paleoanthropologist to studying the behavior of cephalopods.  3:11 – Jeff Krichmar introduces himself, summarizing how he went from being a computer scientist to one of the first neuroroboticists.6:05 – Bernard Baars gives his thoughts on the trajectory of artificial consciousness and the hurdles in the scientific realm that one had to go through in the past, due to their interest in studying consciousness.7:41 – David Edelman on the importance of defining consciousness and how the difference in brain activity during conscious (waking) and unconscious (sleeping) states makes consciousness an observable phenomenon that one can actively study.11:30 – Bernard Baars on why attributing consciousness to a machine would be an ambitious task. 12:52 – Counterarguments by David and Jeff to Bernie’s proposal on how consciousness in machines can emerge. 17:33 – Jeff Krichmar on how energy efficiency is essential for the improvement of our computers in order to be able to simulate a human brain.23:11 – Baars initiating a conversation revolving around the expensiveness and disadvantages of the human brain’s size.28:30 – Edelman on how human sociality has impacted the survivability of the species.32:08 – Edelman, Krichmar, and Baars discussing the possible existence, timeline, and road to “conscious artifacts” in the near future.39:10 – Edelman and Krichmar close out the conversation with a brief discussion on the evolution of neural networks and the moral and ethical concerns in the field.  **Watch the Bonus Video Episode: The History of Brain-Based Devices and Cognitive Robots with Neuroroboticist Jeff KrichmarJeff Krichmar discusses how an overarching theory of the brain, known as Neural Darwinism, was tested using a series of increasingly complex Brain-Based Devices. These robots show cognitive behavior, such as perception, goal-driven behavior, learning and memory. This led to the development of the emerging fields of Neurorobots and Cognitive Robotics where Krichmar and other researchers are making smarter robots based on how brain activity lead to interesting behavior. Visuals Credits: Visualization of MRI brain scan data from a single person, showing nerve fiber bundles near or feeding into part of the hippocampus. Neuroscientist Tyler Ard, NIH-supported lab of Arthur Toga, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los AngelesJim Stanis, Arthur W. Toga, Ryan Cabeen, Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI), USC Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute;NIH Brain initiative 2019 Network architecture of the long-distance pathways in the macaque brain. Dharmendra S. Modha, Raghavendra Singh. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jul 2010, 107 (30) 13485-13490; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1008054107Dynamic mapping of human cortical development during childhood through early adulthood. Nitin Gogtay, Jay N. Giedd, Leslie Lusk, Kiralee M. Hayashi, Deanna Greenstein, A. Catherine Vaituzis, Tom F. Nugent, David H. Herman, Liv S. Clasen, Arthur W. Toga, Judith L. Rapoport, Paul M. Thompson. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May 2004, 101 (21) 8174-8179; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0402680101

  Dr. Bernard J. Baars   Bernard J. Baars, Ph.D. is Affiliated Fellow in Theoretical Neurobiology at the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, CA.   Bernie is a cognitive scientist specializing in conscious and unconscious brain functions, voluntary control, and concepts of self. These common sense ideas have long been difficult to study in the biobehavioral sciences, but have returned to the forefront in recent decades. He is best known for his book, A Cognitive Theory of Consciousness (1988) in which he develops an integrative theory called Global Workspace Theory (GWT) as a model for conscious and unconscious processes in the human brain.    GWT continues to be developed, in collaboration with Professor. Stan Franklin of the University of Memphis, Professor Murray Shanahan of Imperial College, London, and scientists working in the Neural Darwinism tradition of Gerald A. Edelman at the Neurosciences Institute. A number of neuroscientists are advancing the theory from their own perspectives, notably Professor Stan Dehaene and his research group in Paris. A popular account of GWT appeared in 1997, called In the Theater of Consciousness: the Workspace of the Mind, from Oxford University Press (1997; translated into German and Japanese).   Bernie cofounded the journal Consciousness & Cognition together with William P. Banks, published by Academic Press/Elsevier, and was the first president of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness. ASSC is still the sole scientific organization dedicated to the empirical study and understanding of consciousness and related issues. Both Consciousness & Cognition and ASSC have helped to expand the accepted reach of consciousness science to a large number of topics, including such fields as animal consciousness.   Bernie is also a founder and editor of the web bulletin Science and Consciousness Review, along with Thomas Ramsoy and others. SCR aims to make the fast-growing scientific literature available to a wider web audience.   He recently developed teaching materials for a web-based coursethrough the University of Arizona Center for Consciousness Studies. He has also edited a college textbook, together with Nicole M. Gage, called Cognition, Brain, and Consciousness: Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience. (Elsevier/Academic Press, 2007).   Bernie authored The Cognitive Revolution in Psychology, editedExperimental Slips and Human Error: Exploring the Architecture of Volition (Cognition and Language: A Series in Psycholinguistics), and coedited Essential Sources in the Scientific Study of Consciousness.    His papers include An architectural model of conscious and unconscious brain functions: Global Workspace Theory and IDA,How conscious experience and working memory interact, The conscious access hypothesis: origins and recent evidence, Applying Global Workspace Theory to the Frame Problem, Brain, conscious experience and the observing self, and Global Workspace Theory: A Rigorous Scientific Theory of Consciousness.    Bernie earned his Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at UCLA in 1970 and his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology at UCLA in 1977.

We talk with Brian about his doctoral studies in St Thomas Aquinas' philosophy and theology, which opens up conversations about atheism and materialism, Ghostbusters, why Gomer hasn't seen Ghostbusters 1, but he has seen 2, and Thomas Aquinas on Islam. It's a pretty crazy episode, full of grace and truth!Show Notes (all amazon links support the show!)The Regensburg Lecture, An analysis by Fr James SchallAmazon’s James Schall Page: http://www.amazon.com/James-V.-Schall/e/B001H6PN80/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1Movies and TruthThe Coen BrothersEthan Coen http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001053/?ref_=tt_ov_st_smJoel Coen http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001054/?ref_=tt_ov_st_smWes Andersonhttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm0027572/?ref_=nv_sr_2The Royal Tenenbaums 2001 RThe Gospel of Happiness: Rediscover Your Faith Through Spiritual Practice and Positive Psychology Kindle EditionA Catholic version of Mindfulness: The Sacrament of the Present Moment. Bernard J. Baars : The Double Life of B.F. Skinner: Inner Conflict, Dissociation and the Scientific Taboo against Consciousness “Freedom was much in the air at the time. The Calvinism of Skinner’s early upbringing denied freedom, with the hotly-debated doctrine of predestination. Early American novels like Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter play out the conflict between Puritan predestination and the emerging American ethic of individual freedom. This was taught routinely as part of a literary education. Skinner must have been thoroughly aware of this tension as a literature student at Hamilton College. The radical behaviourism of Watson and Skinner is indeed an ideology of rebellion. It defines itself in a militant struggle against the perceived stranglehold of religion, and against religion’s evil twin, the consciousness psychology of the older academic generation — all while proclaiming a determinism as rigorous as Calvin’s theology (Watson, 1925; Skinner, 1987).” — -http://bernardbaars.pbworks.com/f/Double%20Life%20Skinner%20JCS.pdf P 12 Which one? The responsible one or the cool guy with long hair?  Saint Augustine’s Confessions, the best translation: http://amzn.to/1SDmqUYGroundhog Day: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107048/Phil? …PHIL CONNORS?! Best clips from YouTube.comThe Universal Call to Holiness in Lumen Gentium, Chapter Five, paragraph 39ffGet to know Thomas AquinasA Glance at St Thomas Aquinas: A Handbook for Peeping Thomists - http://amzn.to/1oObBCX Guide to Thomas Aquinas by Josef Pieper - http://amzn.to/1oObGGI The Dumb Ox by GK Chesterton - http://amzn.to/1oObPdlSumma of the Summa by Peter Kreeft - http://amzn.to/1SVpyfh For people struggling with God…New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy by Fr Robert SpitzerHow the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization by Thomas Woods Then Gomer and Luke wander way too far into inappropriate territory that HAD to be edited. Then Aquinas talks Islam...