Introduction to:
The Brain Project CD Rom
Having been interested
in the study of consciousness for some time, in
April 1996 I attended the second Towards a Science of
Consciousness
conference (Tucson II), presented by the
University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. This
gathering brought together many of the major
investigators in the field to present papers, to
share data and explore their ideas. Discussions
and presentations covered the Philosophy of Mind
and Knowledge (Epistemology), Psychology,
Neurophysiology, Cognitive Science, Computational
Science, and Quantum Physics.
Subsequently, between
August 14th - 18th, 1996, I presented a series of
public forums at The Performance Space Studio, 199 Cleveland St.,
Redfern, N.S.W. in which I reported on the
Conference and introduced the background to some
of the major topics presented there. Each day of
the Forums involved presentation and
discussion/exploration of a different sector of
ideas and debate on the question as to how
Consciousness arises. Whilst at the conference I
recorded a number of video interviews with some
of the main presenters. These formed the basis of
the forums and subsequent work. The video, edited
transcripts, supporting materials (books,
research papers, graphical and video) were made
available and an Internet web connection was
installed for the period. That material forms the
basis of the present CD Rom.
This CD Rom is the
first edition of a continuing project, which in
its WebSite version is a regularly updated
presentation of the developments in the
scientific study of consciousness. This CD
includes background briefings, summaries of the
main issues from Tucson II and subsequent
conferences as well as opinion and discussion of
those issues. The idea is to synthesise some sort
of overall suggestion towards a theory of
consciousness. If you would like to comment or
contribute a paper to the web site please feel
welcome.
The
presentations at the forums were made with an on
line web page for pulling up links to other sites
and as well using a special helper which
controlled a local video server. All the videos
were thus available for playback, each segment
logged and stored on a dAVE digital disk recorder set up as the video server for
random access to material for points of
discussion.
This was a
physical hypertext show, a physical and virtual
system of informational files, performed in the
process of thinking about and discussing
Consciousness. As presenter I functioned as a
hypertext processor, providing the backgrounds
and introducing and presenting the video'd talks
from some of the speakers.
This
series of Forums is part of the Brain Project, a
development of a documentary opera about
consciousness, and is supported by the Creative
Development Branch of the Australian Film
Commission.
This CD Rom is for
people who are interested in the area but not
specialists, as well as those who are specialists
and interested in the inter-connections with
other fields of thought about consciousness. I
hope it provides an opportunity to mix the
communities and stimulate an exchange of ideas.
Contributions to the
Brain Project Web Site are invited from
interested people. If you are actively engaged in
the study of consciousness, or related areas, and
would like to make a contribution please contact
Stephen Jones. Contributions can be in the form
of papers for the site or links and references to
other sites. To contribute or comment please
email me:
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