Monday, December 1, 2014

Conscousness as logical memory device

There was a time when man first developed computer system based on conceived architecture of brain functioning. Along with development of computer science, significant progress was done in exploring the functioning of brain based on many scientific investigations both in basic sciences and behavioral analysis. Now the time has come to explain actual working of brain based on computer architecture. I have modified general computer system diagram to explain the functioning of consciousness.

Consciousness, though originated from human body could be considered as a separate living entity which responds to both external and internal environment, constantly undergoes changes, feeds on perceptions and struggles for self esteem and survival. Though the definition matches with concept of atma in Hindu philosophy, it does not imply its existence in absence of body and its birth and death are linked to human body. Hence, it should be noted that consciousness is the object derived from human body for convenience of analysis.

Again we can borrow the concepts of physical memory and logical memory coined in computer system for explaining memory management in brain. Just as logical memory has a mapping to locations of physical  memory storage, consciousness also can be presumed to be acting as a  logical memory device which does depend on the  existence of actual physical existence of memory in the form of complex organic compounds.

Consciousness is generally assumed to be of two components one being subconsciousness  managing mainly  the internal body processes whereas the  other component deals with interaction with external environment through sensory organs. Subconsciousness has access to stored memory but does not have intelligence to differentiate between true and false perceptions. Hence in dream we do  visualize false perceptions created by stored memory to be true perceptions.

 While learning new things, intelligence plays an important role in conceiving the perceptions however, after repetition the process does not need any intellectual effort and the job is handed over to subconsciousness in the form of stored memory with established  response characteristics. This is the reason why we do cycling, driving or even speaking without preprocessing.

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