Radiant Cool: A Novel Theory of Consciousness

377 Pages·2003·1.94 MB·English

by  Dan Lloyd

45182Lloyd 12/1/03 12:27 PM Page 1
A N o v e l T h e o r y o f C o n s c i o u s n e s s
L
L
O
Y
R A D I A N T C O O L
D
A Novel Theory of Consciousness
DAN LLOYD
about the implementation of consciousness in the “Dan Lloyd has written a witty and ingenious fable about the puzzles and paradoxes R Professor Grue is dead (or is he?). When graduate
brain. Will the clues of phenomenology and neuro- of the phenomenon of consciousness, with an illuminating nonfictional appendix A student/sleuth Miranda Sharpe discovers him slumped
science converge in time to avert a catastrophe? (The expounding his own take on the subject. He manages to be both entertaining and D over his keyboard, she does the sensible thing—she
dramatic ending cannot be revealed here.) Outside the instructive about a complex subject.” I grabs her dissertation and runs. Little does she suspect
A
fictional world of the novel, Dan Lloyd (the author) —DAVID LODGE, AUTHOR OF THINKS... that soon she will be probing the heart of two myster-
N
appends a lengthy afterword, explaining the proposed ies, trying to discover what happened to Max Grue,
T
theory of consciousness in more scholarly form. “Somehowthe brain must be the mind—yourbrain must be yourmind. How can and trying to solve the profound neurophilosophical

we get to a vantage point from which we can understand this? The steady march C problem of consciousness. Radiant Coolmay be the
Radiant Coolis a real metaphysical thriller—based in of neuroscience, or the mincing crabwalk of academic philosophy, will take you only O first novel of ideas that actually breaks new theoretical
current philosophy of mind—and a genuine scientific a few steps. Dan Lloyd has found a delicious way of seducing our imaginations into O ground, as Dan Lloyd uses a neo-noir (neuro-noir?),
detective story—revealing a new interpretation of func- brand new places, the places we have all been trying to reach: try mind dancing, L D A N L L O Y D hard-boiled framework to propose a new theory of
tional brain imagining. With its ingenious plot and its in this new genre, the neuroscience novel of consciousness.” consciousness.
novel theory, Radiant Coolwill be enjoyed in the class- —DANIEL DENNETT, AUTHOR OF CONSCIOUSNESS EXPLAINED ANDBRAINCHILDREN
room and the study for its entertaining presentation of In the course of her sleuthing, Miranda encounters
phenomenology, neural networks, and brain imaging; “Dan Lloyd may not have solved the mystery of consciousness, but he has characters who share her urgency to get to the bottom
but, most important, it will find its place as a ground- done something nearly as difficult: he has turned the quest for that solution into of the mystery of consciousness, although not always
breaking theory of consciousness. a page-turner. Ecstatically playful, Radiant Coolbreaks new ground in the genre with the most innocent motives. Who holds the key to
of philosophical fiction.” Max Grue’s ultimate vision? Is it the computer-inspired
DAN LLOYD is Professor of Philosophy at Trinity —REBECCA GOLDSTEIN, AUTHOR OF THE MIND-BODY PROBLEM pop psychologist talk-show host? The video-gaming
College in Connecticut, and winner of the first New geek with a passion for artificial neural networks?
Perspectives in Functional Brain Imaging Research The Russian multi-dimensional data detective, or the
award, given by the Functional MRI Data Center and THE MIT PRESS sophisticated neuroscientist with the big book contract?
the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. He is the author MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Ultimately Miranda teams up with the author’s fictional
of Simple Minds(MIT Press, 1989). CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 02142 alter ego, “Dan Lloyd,” and together they build on the
HTTP://MITPRESS.MIT.EDU phenomenological theories of philosopher Edmund
A Bradford Book Husserl (1859–1938) to construct testable hypotheses
0-262-12259-6
JACKET DESIGN: CIANO DESIGN COVER IMAGE: © 2003 GETTY IMAGES ,!7IA2G2-bccfjh!:t;K;k;K;k continued on back flap
RadiantCool

RadiantCool
A NovelTheoryofConsciousness
Dan Lloyd
A Bradford Book
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2004 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any
electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or informa-
tion storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book was set in Sabon and Meta by Graphic Composition, Inc. and was
printed and bound in the United States of America.
With the exception of the author, the characters in this novel are fictions. Any re-
semblance to any person, living or dead, is coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lloyd, Dan Edward, 1953–
Radiant cool : a novel theory of consciousness / Dan Lloyd.
p. cm.
“A Bradford book.”
ISBN 0-262-12259-6 (alk. paper)
1. Neurosciences—Fiction. 2. Consciousness—Fiction. 3. Philosophy—Fic-
tion. I. Title.
PS3612.L56R36 2003
813'.6—dc22
2003059319
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Lines 1–7 from “Howl” from Collected Poems 1947–1980 by Allen Ginsberg.
Copyright © 1955 by Allen Ginsberg. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins
Publishers, Inc.
“Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” is excerpted from The Collected Poems
of Wallace Stevens by Wallace Stevens, copyright 1954 by Wallace Stevens and
renewed 1982 by Holly Stevens. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division
of Random House, Inc.
The passage in chapter 8 from “The Aleph” appears in Collected Fictions,by Jorge
Luis Borges, translated by Andrew Hurley, copyright © 1998 by Maria Kodama;
translation copyright © 1998 by Penguin Putnam Inc. Used by permission of
Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Excerpts from the poetry of Emily Dickinson in chapter 9 are reprinted by permis-
sion of the publishers and Trustees of Amherst College from The Poems of Emily
Dickinson,Thomas H. Johnson, ed., Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Har-
vard University Press, Copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979 by the Presidents and Fel-
lows of Harvard College.
ForCG, RL, and ML, with love.

Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Prologue xv
PartOne. The ThrillofPhenomenology 1
PartTwo. The RealFirefly: Reflectionson a Science ofConsciousness 223
1 The Wrong Toolbox? 225
1.1 One and ManyConsciousnesses 227
1.2 Detectorheads 229
1.3 Houses, Faces, Chairs 232
1.4 The RealFirefly 237
1.5 Clever Leechesand SympatheticThermostats 239
1.6 Everything Goes 245
2 RealLife: The Subjective View ofObjectivity 249
2.1 Stage 1: Intentionality 252
2.2 Stage 2: Superposition 254
2.3 Stage 3: Transcendence 258
2.4 Stage 4: Temporality 260
2.5 Stage 5: Temporality(1), the Threefold Present 262
2.6 Stage 6: Temporality(2), the Order ofMoments 267
2.7 Stage 7: Temporality(3), PhenomenalRecursivity 270
2.8 The Restofthe Story 273
3 Brainsin Toyland 275
3.1 Beep ... Boop 277
3.2 CNVnet 278
3.3 Into the Net 284
3.4 Having ItAll 291
3.5 Our Multivariate World 298
3.6 ToyTemporality 300
3.7 WhatIsItLike to Be a Net? 305
4 Braintime 309
4.1 IndicesofTemporality 310
4.2 Tributariesofthe Stream 318
4.3 Retention Revealed 325
4.4 To the Future 328
4.5 And Beyond? 328
Sourcesand Notes 333
References 351
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving
hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an
angry fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to
the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,
who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in
the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the
tops of cities contemplating jazz,
who bared their brains to Heaven under the El and saw
Mohammedan angels staggering on tenement roofs illuminated,
who passed through universities with radiant cool eyes hallucinating
Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy among the scholars of war,
who were expelled from the academies for crazy & publishing
obscene odes on the windows of the skull. . . .
—Allen Ginsberg, “Howl”
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.
—Wallace Stevens, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”