I liked Reed's points about limbic influence and importance- I think
cognitive theorists' underplaying of limbic influence on consciousness
really comes from their focused interest in cognitive phenomena. Meaning,
they really love talking about cognitive processes, and so are bound to
miss all the emotional stuff.
I had a bad mood the other day, and watched my limbic system hammer my
cognitive functions out of existence. Fantastic. Also I now take naps on
public transport, and play "monitor your consciousness powering down",
which is pretty funny. I know it's introspection going mad, but I swear you
can fleetingly become (aware of) the crazy parallel processes underlying
your pseudo-serial conscious narratives as you fall asleep.
**************
Recently I've begun to actually "see" in terms of evolutionary biology.
It's very disconserting
to look around you and perceive everyone around you as a sort of chimeric
proto-ape doing
all kinds of animal like things.
It's worse when you notice that you're eating the fleas you're picking off
of them.
I'm speaking metaphorically, of course. ;-)
Reed
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Reed Konsler konsler@ascat.harvard.edu
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