Wider Than the Sky: The Phenomenal Gift of Consciousness

Building systematically and admirably on his previous work (A Universe of Consciousness), Gerald Edelman, has finally succeeded in cracking the cosmic code of the mind body problem, or how the conscious mind is a direct product of, rather than an indirect, or by-produce of, or even an epiphenomenon of, physical processes that take place in the brain. Not only has he exhibited the brain parts, chemical processes and functions responsible for consciousness, also he has mapped them into identifiable aspects of conscious processes themselves. And more importantly, in doing so, his research meets the highest cannon of scientific enquiry: It is empirically based, definitions and hypotheses are lay out clearly; and then they are systematically and clearly proven. Every aspect of the research is transparent and replicable. It is also simply explained, but following Einstein's famous edict, it is not explained simpler than necessary. Yet, even where it is not so simple, it is clear enough that the courageous reader -- bent on following this exiciting adventure to the bitter end -- can indeed follow and understand the meaning of these important conclusions. In an inmaterial aside, I must say I had put all my bets on another horse in this race to immortality. I thought that Dan Dennett and his computer analogies would in the end prove weightier in this important scientific foot race. Dispite my earlier misgivings about the Edelman approach, I now know that this always was the best horse in the race. I am thus a happy loser. Two cheers and five stars for the winner.

Exploring the mechanisms of being human inevitably leads us to the mind and its workings. Gerard Edelman has engaged in making those discovery journeys for many years. His stack of published works must stand many centimetres in height. Yet he has been able to distil all that accumulated material into a brief, highly informative book well designed for the general public. That is a stupendous task, yet he's achieved it admirably in this excellent book. In this presentation of human consciousness, Edelman sweeps away much of the mystery. There have been many books attempting to explain our perception of the world. A number of them actually result in a more obscuring than enlightening presentation. Not so in Edelman's case. Using an Emily Dickinson poem to establish the framework for his thesis, the author declares that consciousness resides in the physical brain. We must understand how that developed, Edelman asserts. The answer, of course, lies in the evolutionary development of the human brain and how that led to our version of consciousness. He stresses that we must not discount the cognitive abilities of other animals. Theirs hasn't achieved the complexity of the human mind, but there are countless hints from theirs as to how ours works. The development of human consciousness is a process, not something granted to us. Much of the process occurs in early life, but whether increasing or growing impaired with age, the process never ceases. Given that condition, Edelman rejects the proposition that the brain is a computer, a structure far too rigid to be equated with our form of consciousness. Building maps of the brain has been one of science's lengthy undertakings. As details of where brain functions are located emerged, understanding their links to the body grew. Edelman is quick to point out those "areas" are dominated by identified functions, but far from limited to them. The brain is a highly integrated signalling network - Nature's supreme multi-tasking device. Edelman uses a shorthand term TNGS [Theory of Neuronal Group Selection] to explain the networking process. Some shorthand is required in explaining a system of millions of cells with trillions of connections. The appropriateness of Dickinson's aphorism becomes clear as Edelman details the operations of these extensive networks. The book is assertedly Edelman's. While he doesn't declare that all the findings on brain science are his, neither does he acknowledge who provided the foundation for some of his insights. References are almost all to William James, American founder of cognitive studies. His "Bibliographic Note" is a clear compromise between a full reading list and a teasing call for further reading. He provides an excellent Glossary, to which the new reader to this field should turn at the outset. A number of representational diagrams are provided to enhance the text. In all, Edelman has accomplished his intention - to describe the underpinning of

The human brain consists of a hundred billion neurons that ultimately result in consciousness and self-awareness. It doesn't require much gray matter to appreciate the complexity of this process. In his fascinating study of this experience, Dr. Gerald M. Edelman attempts to answer the challenging question: How can the firing of neurons give rise to human sensations, thoughts and emotions (p. xii)? As a Nobel laureate, the Director of the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, and author of several important studies on consciousness, Dr. Edelman certainly has the credentials. He recognizes his subject is a challenging one, and has written WIDER THAN THE SKY for "the general reader" (with no background in neurobiology, like me), who is willing to expend "a concentrated effort" to understand the subject, promising readers who stick with him on his trip through the human brain a "deeper insight into issues that are the center of human concern" (p.xi).In his short, 148-page book (exclusive of the glossary and index), Dr. Edelman first considers global brain theory encompassing evolution, development, and function of the most complex of human organs. He basically proposes that in the transition between reptiles and birds and reptiles and mammal, a new reciprocal connectivity evolved in the thalamocortical system of the brain (p. 54), and that consciousness then emerged from increasingly complex and integrated neuronal groups. In the end, WIDER THAN THE SKY provides readers with a concise, scientific explanation of consciousness unique to humans.G. Merritt

In this new book, Gerald Edelman continues his intellectual saga regarding the scientific study of consciousness. Both the Theory of Neuronal Group Selection (TNGS) and the Dynamic Core Hypothesis have been introduced in earlier books (Surprizingly, with alot more mathematical detail), but never had they been described with clarity and vividness as they were in this book. Examples, that the general reader can relate to, are given throughout the whole book. Chapter One (The Mind of Man: Completing Darwin's Program) is an assertion by Dr. Edelman that any theory of consciousness should account for the phenomenon to have arisen in evolution by Natural Selection.Chapter Two (Consciousness: The Remembered Present). This is a chapter in which Dr. Edelman talks about some properties of consciousness in light of William James' earlier descriptions. He ascribes privacy, differntiation and intergration to consciousness and stresses the fact that consciousness is a process not a "thing". For instance, on page 6 he says:"... there are accounts that attribute conscoiuness specifically to nerve cells (or consciouness neurons) or to particular layers of the cortical mantle of the brain. The evidence, as we shall see, reaveals that the process of consciousness is a dynamic accomplishment of the distributed activities of population of neurons in many different areas of the brain."Chapter Three (Elements of the Brain) is where Dr. Edelman briefly goes over the structural elements of the brain, describing neurons and their chemical and electrical based signaling systems along with diagrams. He also describes the next hierarchial system of networks and highlights three major neuroanatomical systems that are important for his Global theory of consciousness. Those are the thalamocortical system, cortical/subcortical polysynaptic loop systems (e.g. basal ganglia), and the ascending value system arising from nuclei in the brainstem. It is worth noting that this structural organization is in good agreement with Bernard Baar's Global Workspace model. Another point worth mentioning in this chapter is Edelman's view of synaptic plasticity in relation to memory. on page 21 he says, "Studies of the neural properties of the hippocampus provide important examples of some of the synaptic mechanisms underlying memory. One such mechanism, which should NOT be equated with memory itself, is the change in the strength, or efficacy, of hippocampal synapses that occur with certain patterns of neural stimuation." Chapter Four (Neural Darwinism: A Global Brain Theory) is a superb chapter. Although, conceptually, TNGS has already been built in earlier books and publications, but it is now vividly described. Dr. Edelman highlight major differences between the working of the brain as a selectional biological systems and that of a Turing Machine. He discusses noise in biological systems, degeneracy, and reentrancy. Degeneracy in relation to Reentrant circuits is finally illustrated in a diag

"Wider than the Sky" offers a concise scientific explanation of human consciousness to readers with no previous formal education in neurobiology. It avoids the metaphysical and mystical (what Edelman calls "spooky forces") and clearly explains any technical terms used. A glossary at the back of the book defines words from Action potential to Zombie. ("A hypothetical humanlike creature that lacks consciousness but which, it is erroneously assumed, can carry out all of the functions of a conscious human.") The author uses the concept of neural Darwinism to suggest how consciousness evolved in mammals by massively increasing the connectivity between the cortical areas of the brain that carry out perceptual categorization and the frontal areas responsible for value-category memory systems. The definition of zombies turns out not to be purely whimsical. Consciousness requires specific neural activity - and where that activity occurs there must be consciousness.Dr Edelman promises a "deeper insight into issues that are the center of human concern" to any reader willing to make a concerted effort to understand this challenging subject. He delivers wonderfully well on his promise. The conscious brain as described in "Wider than the Sky" is complex, dynamic, variable and unique to humankind.