Chapter 2 foreword

This book attempts to use the scientific method to explain the mysteries of consciousness.Here, I am not trying to give a straightforward answer to the question of consciousness.I'd like to be able to, but it seems too difficult at the moment.Of course, some philosophers mistakenly think that this has been solved, but to me their explanations do not fall within the realm of scientific truth.What I want to do here is to outline the nature of the problem of consciousness and to suggest some ways in which it can be studied experimentally.What I am about to propose is a specific research strategy, not a fully developed theory.What I want to know is what is going on in my head when I look at something.

Some readers may find this way of thinking a little disappointing.Because it deliberately avoids much of what they like to hear about consciousness, especially how to define it.You can't win by arguing over the meaning of the word combat.You'll need a well-trained team, well-armed weapons, and surprising tactics before you can effectively crush your enemies.These are equally suitable for solving a difficult scientific problem. This book is written for a general reader who has a scientific interest in the question of consciousness but has no specialized knowledge.This meant that I had to explain everything about consciousness in relatively simple terms.Even so, some readers may find parts of the book difficult to follow.To that, I would say: don't be discouraged by the complexity of unfamiliar arguments and experimental details.Hang in there, or simply skim through the difficult chapters, the general meaning is generally easy to understand.

Philosophers and scientists who study mind-brain problems will clearly see that I have neglected many questions of great interest to them.Although this treatment is overly simplistic, I still hope that they will learn something from this book, even if only in the chapters they know little. It is not easy to do this in school.Nor can I completely avoid misinterpretations of opinion, the question of consciousness is a research topic that is far from unanimous, and we cannot get anywhere without some initial bias.The reader will understand that at this moment I am not a fan of functionalist and behaviorist views, nor am I inclined towards the arguments of mathematicians, physicists, or philosophers.Perhaps tomorrow I will find out the error of thinking at this time, but today I still do my best.

Now is the time to think about the question of consciousness (and its relation to a hypothetically immortal soul) in scientific terms, and above all, now is the time to start serious and well-designed experiments to study it.This is exactly the inspiration given in this book. The following overview of this book will help guide the reader through the jungle of brain science.This book is mainly divided into three parts. Part I consists of the following chapters: In the first chapter I began to boldly state my "amazing hypothesis".It outlines my approach to the study of the brain.To understand ourselves, we must know how nerve cells work and how they interact.Next, pre-scientific ideas about consciousness and the soul are compared with modern scientific knowledge of the universe.Finally, I briefly discuss some philosophically flavored issues such as reductionism, qualia, emergent behavior, and the reality of the world.

Chapter 2 outlines the general nature of consciousness (as discussed a century ago by William James and three modern psychologists) and relates it to attention mechanisms and very short-term memory.Then there are the various assumptions I made to solve this problem, which explain why I want to focus on a special kind of consciousness (visual consciousness) rather than other types of consciousness, such as pain consciousness, self-consciousness, and so on. Chapter 3 shows why the naive ideas most people have about how to see are largely incorrect.Although we still don't know what's really going on in our minds when we look at things, we can at least outline the possible ways in which the scientific method can be used to study this problem.Chapters 4 and 5 describe at length some of the few complex issues in the psychology of visual perception.These chapters will give the reader an impression of what must be explained.

The second part mainly gives a brief overview of the brain, especially the visual system.I do not want to give the reader too many details, but only provide some knowledge about how the nervous system is organized and how it works. I begin with an overview of brain anatomy in Chapter 7, followed by a brief description of individual nerve cells in Chapter 8.Chapter 9 introduces the experimental methods commonly used in brain research (including cytology and molecular biology).The next two chapters outline the general properties of the higher primate visual system.Chapter 12 shows how useful information can be obtained from studying cases of patients with brain injuries.The second bulk, concluding in Chapter 13, describes theoretical models (called "neural networks") that can be used to simulate the behavior of units consisting of small groups of similar neurons.

The first two parts provide the necessary background knowledge for moving on to the third part.Various possible experimental methods for studying visual awareness are discussed in the third part.None of these have yet led to the answer, but some of them are promising.Chapter 18 concludes Part III by discussing some of the general controversies arising from my formulation.Finally, I conclude the book with an epilogue on "free will." In order to keep the article compact, I have given less important arguments as footnotes, and provided a glossary to explain concisely the scientific terms in the text, and before the glossary, the length, time, frequency, etc. Common scientific units are noted because brain activity occurs over much smaller distances and times than in everyday experience.

For those readers who wish to delve deeper into some subject, I have provided lists of further readings, some for the layman and some for the specialist.In most cases I have added brief comments on their content.The superscript numbers in square brackets in the text refer to more technical references, mainly published in some research journals (these references are listed in the appendix of this book, translator's note).This only includes a very small part of the relevant literature, but it provides a starting point for further detailed exploration.I don't want to recommend these papers to lay readers, because most papers are too difficult and boring.

My highest respect goes to those readers who point out the shortcomings of this book.But I'm less enthusiastic about general discussions.Many people have their own thoughts on the question of consciousness, and many of them feel compelled to put them on paper. Forgive me for not being able to read through all the letters from many readers on this subject.My general practice is to consider only those ideas that have been published in respectable journals and books from reputable publishers.Otherwise, other people's chirping advice would keep me from thinking effectively.I will continue to explore these difficult questions.Hopefully this preface will generate some interest for readers.