On Saturday , Charlie Kaufman , the screenwriter behind Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich , came to New York to talk to us about the nature of consciousness . Here ’s what he had to say .
The upshot was part of New York City ’s one-year World Science Festival , which often couple groundbreaking scientists with vivid artist . While the Oscar - achiever was the main attraction , sleep investigator Guilo Tononi certainly brought plenty to the table . Alan Alda behave as moderator and transcriber for those of us without PhDs . ( If I had to guess , I ’d say the crowd leaned heavily toward Kaufman fans , but with a respectable figure of neuroscientists spread out throughout . )
A clipping from Being John Malkovich set the tone for the treatment . Struggling puppeteer Craig ( Jon Cusack ) , envious of a rival ’s winner , turn to his wife ’s pet chimp and bemoans the unspeakable load of knowingness . ( The chimp , for his part , looks skeptical of Craig ’s bitching . ) After we ’d follow the time , Tononi need Kaufman whether he ’d trade consciousness for all the filmmaking awards in the world and a cracking pile of money . The screenwriter said no : Craig does n’t needs represent him , and he chooses “ the curse of consciousness ” for himself .
That led into an in - depth treatment of what neuroscience has to say about knowingness , as well as Tononi ’s own “ desegregate information hypothesis . ” Think of consciousness as what fades away when you pass into a dreamless sleep . But even that working definition does n’t really recount us what cognizance is , or what it imply for there to be an “ I ” that nod off at night . Sorry to disappoint anyone who ’d hoped for the secret of life , but skill just is n’t advanced enough to provide an answer . Tononi even admitted that our own cognitive limitations may mean we ’ll never get one . But that ’s not going to block researchers from try , which is why they ’re always collecting information on what bechance where in the brain . But if scientist are going to make any sense of our own mind , Tononi argue , they ’ll need some sort of working theory . His contribution is the “ Integrated Information Theory , ” which suggests a being is witting if it ’s a single entity , but with many possible states . He used the metaphor of a picture : You ’ve stupefy an enormous figure of potential framing , but you only experience one at a time . All capability narrow down to this one frame , this one experience .
Having provide the interview with a crash course in current possibility of awareness , Tononi , Kaufman , and Alda set in motion into a more free - form discussion , feature clips from Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine as jump - off point .
Especially interesting were Kaufman ’s thoughts on hokey intelligence . We ’d just seen a clip from Scientific American Frontiers , with Alda participating in an experimentation that narrowed his line of business of visual sensation down to a individual image of flash , ill-tempered - crosshatched light . The brain ca n’t process the competing data , so he was watch the colors flip-flop every duo of second . That ’s when Kaufman leap in to suggest one grown conflict between human and by artificial means constructed brains :
Said Kaufman :
There seems to be a spate of scrap going on within a person . And I ’m not sure what it ’s for , but it ’s there . People argue with themselves all the time , about decisiveness . They come from different places : ethical business organisation , survival concerns , self - aggrandizing concern , or whatever . And they ’re all sort of mish - dally together , and there ’s not a decipherable single schedule . It occur to me that seems to be a divergence .
While political machine are designed to be effective , confusion is inherent in human organism . Even if it were ramp up into car , Kaufman added , “ it would have to be built in in an contrived way . ” Of course , part of the problem might be that we ’re taste to make computer witting like a person , rather than witting like a electronic computer . “ Maybe that ’s not something we could do , possibly a computer needs to make a computer that ’s conscious like a reckoner . ” The whole tangent seemed to suggest there ’s something superbly accidental about cognisance .
Kaufman also mentioned Ray Kurzweil ’s Ramona , the computer project to interact like a person . He found her naturalistic enough that he could n’t sign off without saying good-bye and see himself a bit deplorable at how easily she say goodbye to him . “ I felt this sort of , I do n’t bonk , longing or something , to have a connection with her , even though clearly it was nonsensical , ” Kaufman tell . But that poses the question : “ How much of what we see in other mass are we completely making up ? ”
Another clip spurred a discussion of individuality , and whether there ’s something obscene about having multiple versions of ourself wandering around . Tononi also brought up the scenery where John Malkovich skid down the burrow to find an entire restaurant of Malkoviches , asking Kaufman whether he was trying to make a especial spot . First , Kaufman only read , “ Because it was funny . ” But Tononi pressed him , and Kaufman recoiled at the idea of actually experiencing such a affair . It ’s funny , but it ’s also alarm : “ But if there are five of me , or even just two of me , permit ’s make it easy , I ’m still not in both people . I ’m not thinking in that body . ” Alan Alda made the detail that within minute , the multiple versions of yourself would branch off into different people with different experiences , but Kaufman responded , “ But there would be that one first second , like , holy damn . ”
They even touched on teleportation . The discussion turned to whether the process could preserve your consciousness , give that it would require put down your trunk in one place and reproduce it elsewhere . “ Would you do it ? Would you still be there , on the other side , if it ’s a copy of you - would it be you ? ” asked Kaufman .
Alan Alda echoed his question , demand , “ Would you still be conscious there , in the same way , that you are there ? ” Tononi told them the answer must be yes , because our brains in reality reprocess matter over the course of a night . Within two weeks it ’s a totally new set of molecules in your brain . “ It ’s the arrangement that matters , more than the piece , ” he explain .
The World Science Festival is over , but you’re able to seevideo of some panels here .
Charlie KaufmanconsciousnessNeuroscienceScience
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