Philosophers
Mortimer Adler Rogers Albritton Alexander of Aphrodisias Samuel Alexander William Alston Anaximander G.E.M.Anscombe Anselm Louise Antony Thomas Aquinas Aristotle David Armstrong Harald Atmanspacher Robert Audi Augustine J.L.Austin A.J.Ayer Alexander Bain Mark Balaguer Jeffrey Barrett William Barrett William Belsham Henri Bergson George Berkeley Isaiah Berlin Richard J. Bernstein Bernard Berofsky Robert Bishop Max Black Susanne Bobzien Emil du Bois-Reymond Hilary Bok Laurence BonJour George Boole Émile Boutroux F.H.Bradley C.D.Broad Michael Burke Lawrence Cahoone C.A.Campbell Joseph Keim Campbell Rudolf Carnap Carneades Nancy Cartwright Gregg Caruso Ernst Cassirer David Chalmers Roderick Chisholm Chrysippus Cicero Randolph Clarke Samuel Clarke Anthony Collins Antonella Corradini Diodorus Cronus Jonathan Dancy Donald Davidson Mario De Caro Democritus Daniel Dennett Jacques Derrida René Descartes Richard Double Fred Dretske John Dupré John Earman Laura Waddell Ekstrom Epictetus Epicurus Austin Farrer Herbert Feigl Arthur Fine John Martin Fischer Frederic Fitch Owen Flanagan Luciano Floridi Philippa Foot Alfred Fouilleé Harry Frankfurt Richard L. Franklin Bas van Fraassen Michael Frede Gottlob Frege Peter Geach Edmund Gettier Carl Ginet Alvin Goldman Gorgias Nicholas St. John Green H.Paul Grice Ian Hacking Ishtiyaque Haji Stuart Hampshire W.F.R.Hardie Sam Harris William Hasker R.M.Hare Georg W.F. Hegel Martin Heidegger Heraclitus R.E.Hobart Thomas Hobbes David Hodgson Shadsworth Hodgson Baron d'Holbach Ted Honderich Pamela Huby David Hume Ferenc Huoranszki Frank Jackson William James Lord Kames Robert Kane Immanuel Kant Tomis Kapitan Walter Kaufmann Jaegwon Kim William King Hilary Kornblith Christine Korsgaard Saul Kripke Thomas Kuhn Andrea Lavazza Christoph Lehner Keith Lehrer Gottfried Leibniz Jules Lequyer Leucippus Michael Levin Joseph Levine George Henry Lewes C.I.Lewis David Lewis Peter Lipton C. Lloyd Morgan John Locke Michael Lockwood Arthur O. Lovejoy E. Jonathan Lowe John R. Lucas Lucretius Alasdair MacIntyre Ruth Barcan Marcus James Martineau Storrs McCall Hugh McCann Colin McGinn Michael McKenna Brian McLaughlin John McTaggart Paul E. Meehl Uwe Meixner Alfred Mele Trenton Merricks John Stuart Mill Dickinson Miller G.E.Moore Thomas Nagel Otto Neurath Friedrich Nietzsche John Norton P.H.Nowell-Smith Robert Nozick William of Ockham Timothy O'Connor Parmenides David F. Pears Charles Sanders Peirce Derk Pereboom Steven Pinker Plato Karl Popper Porphyry Huw Price H.A.Prichard Protagoras Hilary Putnam Willard van Orman Quine Frank Ramsey Ayn Rand Michael Rea Thomas Reid Charles Renouvier Nicholas Rescher C.W.Rietdijk Richard Rorty Josiah Royce Bertrand Russell Paul Russell Gilbert Ryle Jean-Paul Sartre Kenneth Sayre T.M.Scanlon Moritz Schlick Arthur Schopenhauer John Searle Wilfrid Sellars Alan Sidelle Ted Sider Henry Sidgwick Walter Sinnott-Armstrong J.J.C.Smart Saul Smilansky Michael Smith Baruch Spinoza L. Susan Stebbing Isabelle Stengers George F. Stout Galen Strawson Peter Strawson Eleonore Stump Francisco Suárez Richard Taylor Kevin Timpe Mark Twain Peter Unger Peter van Inwagen Manuel Vargas John Venn Kadri Vihvelin Voltaire G.H. von Wright David Foster Wallace R. Jay Wallace W.G.Ward Ted Warfield Roy Weatherford C.F. von Weizsäcker William Whewell Alfred North Whitehead David Widerker David Wiggins Bernard Williams Timothy Williamson Ludwig Wittgenstein Susan Wolf Scientists David Albert Michael Arbib Walter Baade Bernard Baars Jeffrey Bada Leslie Ballentine Gregory Bateson John S. Bell Mara Beller Charles Bennett Ludwig von Bertalanffy Susan Blackmore Margaret Boden David Bohm Niels Bohr Ludwig Boltzmann Emile Borel Max Born Satyendra Nath Bose Walther Bothe Jean Bricmont Hans Briegel Leon Brillouin Stephen Brush Henry Thomas Buckle S. H. Burbury Melvin Calvin Donald Campbell Sadi Carnot Anthony Cashmore Eric Chaisson Gregory Chaitin Jean-Pierre Changeux Rudolf Clausius Arthur Holly Compton John Conway Jerry Coyne John Cramer Francis Crick E. P. Culverwell Antonio Damasio Olivier Darrigol Charles Darwin Richard Dawkins Terrence Deacon Lüder Deecke Richard Dedekind Louis de Broglie Stanislas Dehaene Max Delbrück Abraham de Moivre Paul Dirac Hans Driesch John Eccles Arthur Stanley Eddington Gerald Edelman Paul Ehrenfest Manfred Eigen Albert Einstein George F. R. Ellis Hugh Everett, III Franz Exner Richard Feynman R. A. Fisher David Foster Joseph Fourier Philipp Frank Steven Frautschi Edward Fredkin Lila Gatlin Michael Gazzaniga Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen GianCarlo Ghirardi J. Willard Gibbs Nicolas Gisin Paul Glimcher Thomas Gold A. O. Gomes Brian Goodwin Joshua Greene Dirk ter Haar Jacques Hadamard Mark Hadley Patrick Haggard J. B. S. Haldane Stuart Hameroff Augustin Hamon Sam Harris Ralph Hartley Hyman Hartman John-Dylan Haynes Donald Hebb Martin Heisenberg Werner Heisenberg John Herschel Basil Hiley Art Hobson Jesper Hoffmeyer Don Howard William Stanley Jevons Roman Jakobson E. T. Jaynes Pascual Jordan Ruth E. Kastner Stuart Kauffman Martin J. Klein William R. Klemm Christof Koch Simon Kochen Hans Kornhuber Stephen Kosslyn Daniel Koshland Ladislav Kovàč Leopold Kronecker Rolf Landauer Alfred Landé Pierre-Simon Laplace David Layzer Joseph LeDoux Gilbert Lewis Benjamin Libet David Lindley Seth Lloyd Hendrik Lorentz Josef Loschmidt Ernst Mach Donald MacKay Henry Margenau Owen Maroney Humberto Maturana James Clerk Maxwell Ernst Mayr John McCarthy Warren McCulloch N. David Mermin George Miller Stanley Miller Ulrich Mohrhoff Jacques Monod Emmy Noether Alexander Oparin Abraham Pais Howard Pattee Wolfgang Pauli Massimo Pauri Roger Penrose Steven Pinker Colin Pittendrigh Max Planck Susan Pockett Henri Poincaré Daniel Pollen Ilya Prigogine Hans Primas Henry Quastler Adolphe Quételet Lord Rayleigh Jürgen Renn Juan Roederer Jerome Rothstein David Ruelle Tilman Sauer Jürgen Schmidhuber Erwin Schrödinger Aaron Schurger Sebastian Seung Thomas Sebeok Claude Shannon David Shiang Abner Shimony Herbert Simon Dean Keith Simonton B. F. Skinner Lee Smolin Ray Solomonoff Roger Sperry John Stachel Henry Stapp Tom Stonier Antoine Suarez Leo Szilard Max Tegmark Libb Thims William Thomson (Kelvin) Giulio Tononi Peter Tse Francisco Varela Vlatko Vedral Mikhail Volkenstein Heinz von Foerster Richard von Mises John von Neumann Jakob von Uexküll John B. Watson Daniel Wegner Steven Weinberg Paul A. Weiss Herman Weyl John Wheeler Wilhelm Wien Norbert Wiener Eugene Wigner E. O. Wilson Stephen Wolfram H. Dieter Zeh Ernst Zermelo Wojciech Zurek Konrad Zuse Fritz Zwicky Presentations Biosemiotics Free Will Mental Causation James Symposium |
Sebastian Seung
Sebastian Seung is a Princeton neuroscientist who leads a project to map the "connectome," a new term for the brain/mind, parallel to the term "genome." Just as the genome is our genetic information, encoded in the macromolecules of DNA, the connectome is mental information, stored in the trillions of connections between the ten billion neurons in our brain.
It is Seung's ambitious goal to map the complete set of connections between neurons in brains, initially those of small animals, but ultimately of human brains. To achieve this, he is using the latest computer tools of artificial intelligence and machine learning, with the help of hundreds of thousands of volunteers around the world in Eyewire, an online game or puzzle in which humans identify and tag neurons in two-dimensional layers (slices of brain tissue), to train machine learning that can create the full three-dimensional map of neurons and their connections.
The National Institute of Health is supporting Human Connectome Projects and a Connectome Coordination Facility. These projects have made major progress mapping the major neuron pathways between different brain regions as shown below. Seung's project is much more ambitious, hoping to map the trillions of synaptic connections between the billions of neurons.
![]() Brain pathways. Coloured 3-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of the white matter pathways of the brain, side view. White matter is composed of myelin-coated nerve cell fibres that carry information between nerve cells in the cerebrum of the brain (top half of image) and the brain stem (bottom centre). This image was created by an MRI scanner sensitised to the movement of water around the brain. Blue represents neural pathways from the top to the bottom of the brain, green represents pathways from the front (left) to the back (right), and red shows pathways between the right and left hemispheres of the brain.
Uploading and Downloading a Brain?
It is tempting to think of the mind as software in the brain hardware, and Seung writes about the possibility of "uploading" the connectome data, then simulating minds/brains in future supercomputers to study memory recall and possibly share experiences and knowledge between different minds.
Seung says that one
approach is to use the connectome to build a computer simulation of the spiking of neurons in a network, then run the simulation and watch the neurons to see the order in which they spike during memory recall. It’s only natural to dream of scaling up this approach to an entire brain. Uploading is the ultimate way of testing the hypothesis “You are your connectome.”But there is a vast difference between computing machines and a mind/brain. Philosophers of mind deny the possibility of a machine having a subjective experience, especially having "feelings," and what they call the "qualia," the "what's it's like to" taste an apple, or to see the "blueness" in the sky. Seung describes the storage of memories or experiences in strengthened synaptic connections between neurons. He cites the work of Eric Kandel and Donald Hebb. Seung says "Hebb was way ahead of his time." (p. 82) Hebb proposed what is called a "cell assembly," a group of neurons "wired together" by strengthened synapses simply because they had "fired together" by sensations that sent trains of activation spikes along them. A Hebbian assembly can store a memory that can be recalled by any new experience that fires just some of the wired-together neurons. This is the idea that neurons that have been wired together will later fire together, perhaps just by thinking about related concepts. This is a neural model for the "association of ideas" (John Locke, David Hume). Hebbian assemblies are also similar in some ways to Herbert Simon's "blackboard" model for human cognition, in which various items could be written to a blackboard which was visible to other systems that could read and write on the blackboard. As a model for human consciousness, Simon's blackboard resembles the Theater of Consciousness and Global Workspace Theory of Bernard Baars. A blackboard architecture is an important part of most computer "expert systems." A vital difference between neuron assemblies in brains and network connections in computers is that when a Hebbian assembly fires it can stimulate activity in the brain's emotional centers (e.g., the amygdala), reproducing emotions felt in the original experience (pain, pleasure, fear, comfort), which adds valuable meaning and context to the current experience. In William James' "stream of consciousness," a new experience can generate a "blooming, buzzing, confusion" of related ideas from past experiences, providing the possible alternatives for new actions that are the basis for his two-stage model of free will. While Seung emphasizes the brain's "wiring" as what makes us who we are, information philosophy emphasizes the stored information and the cellular communication of information over the "wires" as constituting our identity and individual personality. But this is just a difference in emphasis. Seung's human connectome will some day let us see exactly where human experiences are recorded in brains and how they are later reproduced as value-based guides to our decisions and actions in future experiences. See our Experience Recorder and Reproducer. Something Seung wrote about a "celebrity neuron" seems to describe its dependence on being previously wired together in a Hebbian assembly. If a neuron spikes in response to Jennifer Aniston but not other celebrities, we might think that the neuron’s function is the detection of Jen. But this neuron is embedded in a network of many other neurons. It would be a mistake to think of this neuron as a lone genius, detecting Jen all by itself. Newton’s words ring even truer for neurons than for Newton: “If a neuron sees further, it is only by standing on the shoulders of other neurons.”In terms of information science and our ERR, a single neuron simply cannot contain enough information content to reproduce the experience of Jennifer Aniston. Indeed, the information is not even in the many synaptic connections in the Hebbian assembly. It is in the total experience reproduced by the connected neurons all firing again, bringing back visions, sounds, and other senses, but also related feelings about Jennifer. Normal | Teacher | Scholar |