Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Physical Science
  •  94
    The slides of a talk given at the Cavendish Laboratory in 2001, relating brain function to concepts such as hyperstructure theory (Baas), Memory Evolutive Systems (Ehresmann), and representational redescription (A Karmiloff-Smith)
  •  152
    (article sent to participants of the Lindau meeting where a talk on this subject was given) David Bohm suggested that some kind of implicate order underlies the manifest order observed in physical systems, while others have suggested that some kind of mind-like process underlies this order. In the following a more explicit picture is proposed, based on the existence of parallels between spontaneously fluctuating equilibrium states and life processes. Focus on the processes of natural language su…Read more
  •  124
    A generative approach to the understanding of cognitive skills
    with Nils A. Baas
    In Andrée Ehresmann, George Farre & Paul Vanbremeersch (eds.), Actes du Symposium ECHO, Université De Picardie Jules Verne. 1996.
    We describe a new approach to understanding the functioning of the nervous system, unifying previous ideas of Josephson and Hauser, Baas, and Brooks. Its basis consists in analysing the total developmental process into basic components of development, whose corresponding mechanisms (skill constructors) are organised together into a coherent total system.
  •  14
    Edmund Storms’ new book is entitled “The Explanation of Low Energy Nuclear Reaction,” though, since it is far from clear that an acceptable explanation has been given in the book, a more accurate title might be “Attempting to Explain Low Energy Nuclear Reactions” (commonly known as cold fusion, and abbreviated by the acronym LENR). Storms’ strategy involves exhaustive study of the many experiments that appear to validate claims for the existence of this phenomenon, arguing on the basis of these …Read more
  •  11
    While the ridiculing of new ideas and their consequent suppression is not a new phenomenon (as for example happened with Semmelweis’s proposal that disease could be reduced if doctors who delivered babies washed their hands first), changes in the nature of scientific activity have introduced new and rather sinister aspects into the phenomenon. Bauer cites the case of a letter sent by Duesberg to the journal JAIDS, disputing the number of deaths due to AIDS in South Africa quoted in an article cr…Read more
  •  146
    Musical minds
    with T. L. Carpenter
    New Scientist (1762, April 20). 1991.
    Comments on the idea that music might be a process of communication between composer and listener.
  •  403
    The Physics of Mind and Thought
    Activitas Nervosa Superior 61. 2019.
    Regular physics is unsatisfactory in that it fails to take into consideration phenomena relating to mind and meaning, whereas on the other side of the cultural divide such constructs have been studied in detail. This paper discusses a possible synthesis of the two perspectives. Crucial is the way systems realising mental function can develop step by step on the basis of the scaffolding mechanisms of Hoffmeyer, in a way that can be clarified by consideration of the phenomenon of language. Taki…Read more
  •  18
    How we might be able to understand the brain
    Activas Nervosa Superior 51 (3). 2009.
    Current methodologies in the neurosciences have difficulty in accounting for complex phenomena such as language, which can however be quite well characterised in phenomenological terms. This paper addresses the issue of unifying the two approaches. We typically understand complicated systems in terms of a collection of models, each characterisable in principle within a formal system, it being possible to explain higher-level properties in terms of lower level ones by means of a series of inferen…Read more
  •  2677
    Complex Organisation and Fundamental Physics
    Streaming Media Service, Cambridge University. 2018.
    The file on this site provides the slides for a lecture given in Hangzhou in May 2018, and the lecture itself is available at the URL beginning 'sms' in the set of links provided in connection with this item. It is commonly assumed that regular physics underpins biology. Here it is proposed, in a synthesis of ideas by various authors, that in reality structures and mechanisms of a biological character underpin the world studied by physicists, in principle supplying detail in the domain that acc…Read more
  •  71
    Biological Observer-participation and Wheeler's Law without Law
    In Plamen L. Simeonov, Leslie Smith & Andrée C. Ehresmann (eds.), Integral Biomathics: Tracing the Road to Reality, Springer. 2012.
    It is argued that at a sufficiently deep level the conventional quantitative approach to the study of nature faces difficult problems, and that biological processes should be seen as more fundamental, in a way that can be elaborated on the basis of Peircean semiotics and Yardley's Circular Theory. In such a world-view, Wheeler's observer-participation and emergent law arise naturally, rather than having to be imposed artificially. This points the way to a deeper understanding of nature, where me…Read more
  •  547
    On the Fundamentality of Meaning
    In FQXi Essays on 'What Is Fundamental?'. 2018.
    The mainstream view of meaning is that it is emergent, not fundamental, but some have disputed this, asserting that there is a more fundamental level of reality than that addressed by current physical theories, and that matter and meaning are in some way entangled. In this regard there are intriguing parallels between the quantum and biological domains, suggesting that there may be a more fundamental level underlying both. I argue that the organisation of this fundamental level is already to a c…Read more
  •  194
    The elusivity of nature and the mind-matter problem
    In B. Rubik (ed.), The Interrelationship Between Mind and Matter, Center For Frontier Sciences Temple University. pp. 219--222. 1992.
    This paper examines the processes involved in attempting to capture the subtlest aspects of nature by the scientific method and argues on this basis that nature is fundamentally elusive and may resist grasping by the methods of science. If we wish to come to terms with this resistance, then a shift in the direction of taking direct experience into account may be necessary for science’s future complete development.
  •  1105
    This paper argues that there is no good reason to suppose that the current physical laws represent the end of the road for science. Taking due account of experience, and especially mystical experience, may lead to an extension of science involving a synthesis of scientific and spiritual knowledge.
  •  40
  •  2668
    Edited proceedings of an interdisciplinary symposium on consciousness held at the University of Cambridge in January 1978. Includes a foreword by Freeman Dyson. Chapter authors: G. Vesey, R.L. Gregory, H.C. Longuet-Higgins, N.K. Humphrey, H.B. Barlow, D.M. MacKay, B.D. Josephson, M. Roth, V.S. Ramachandran, S. Padfield, and (editorial summary only) E. Noakes. A scanned pdf is available from this web site (philpapers.org), while alternative versions more suitable for copying text are available f…Read more
  •  436
    Beyond Quantum Theory: A Realist Psycho-Biological Interpretation of Physical Reality
    with Michael Conrad and D. Home
    In A. van der Marwe, F. Selleri & G. Tarozzi (eds.), Microphysical Reality and Quantum Formalism, Vol. I, Kluwer Academic. pp. 285-293. 1988.
    Stapp and others have proposed that reality involves a fundamental life process, or creative process. It is shown how this process description may be unified with the description that derives from quantum physics. The methods of the quantum physicist and of the biological sciences are seen to be two alternative approaches to the understanding of nature, involving two distinct modes of description which can usefully supplement each other, and neither on its own contains the full story. The unifie…Read more
  •  30
    The importance of experience: Where for the future?
    In Kunio Yasue, Marj Jibu & Tarcisio Della Senta (eds.), No Matter, Never Mind, John Benjamins. pp. 33--109. 2002.
  •  128
    Limits to the universality of quantum mechanics
    Foundations of Physics 18 (12): 1195-1204. 1988.
    Niels Bohr's arguments indicating the non-applicability of quantum methodology to the study of the ultimate details of life, given in his bookAtomic Physics and Human Knowledge, conflict with the commonly held opposite view. The bases for the usual beliefs are examined and shown to have little validity; significant differences do exist between the living organism and the type of system studied successfully in the physics laboratory. Dealing with living organisms in quantum-mechanical terms with …Read more
  •  1232
    What can music tell us about the nature of the mind? A Platonic Model
    with Tethys Carpenter
    In Stuart R. Hameroff, Alfred W. Kaszniak & Alwyn C. Scott (eds.), Toward a Science of Consciousness, Mit Press. 1996.
    We present an account of the phenomenon of music based upon the hypothesis that there is a close parallel between the mechanics of life and the mechanics of mind, a key factor in the correspondence proposed being the existence of close parallels between the concepts of gene and musical idea. The hypothesis accounts for the specificity, complexity, functionality and apparent arbitrariness of musical structures. An implication of the model is that music should be seen as a phenomenon of transcend…Read more
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  •  124
    It is argued that cognitive capacities can be understood as the outcome of the collective action of a set of agents created by tools that explore possible behaviours and train the agents to behave in such appropriate ways as may be discovered. The coherence of the whole system is assured by a combination of vetting the performance of new agents and dealing appropriately with any faults that the whole system may develop. This picture is shown to account for a range of cognitive capacities, includ…Read more
  •  609
    (v.3) In this paper it is argued that Barad's Agential Realism, an approach to quantum mechanics originating in the philosophy of Niels Bohr, can be the basis of a 'theory of everything' consistent with a proposal of Wheeler that 'observer-participancy is the foundation of everything'. On the one hand, agential realism can be grounded in models of self- organisation such as the hypercycles of Eigen, while on the other agential realism, by virtue of the 'discursive practices' that constitute one …Read more
  •  462
    Multistage acquisition of intelligent behaviour
    with H. M. Hauser
    Kybernetes 10. 1981.
    Human skills are acquired not by a single uniform process, but in a series of stages, as Piaget has shown. We have investigated such a sequential process by taking as an illustrative example the game of table tennis. The aims in each stage of learning are qualitatively different, and we show in detail how knowledge gained during one stage provides essential information for subsequent stages. Conclusions are drawn which may be important for artificial intelligence work generally. The question of …Read more
  •  540
    A holistic approach to language
    with David G. Blair
    International Philsophical Preprint Exchange (IPPE). 1982.
    The following progress report views language acquisition as primarily the attempt to create processes that connect together in a fruitful way linguistic input and other activity. The representations made of linguistic input are thus those that are optimally effective in mediating such interconnections. An effective Language Acquisition Device should contain mechanisms specific to the task of creating the desired interconnection processes in the linguistic environment in which the language learne…Read more
  •  485
    The challenge of consciousness research
    with Beverly Rubik
    Frontier Perspectives 3 (1): 15-19. 1992.
  •  1
    What makes conscious experience a difficult or confusing subject for science to deal with is its personal or individualistic character (that is to say the fact that a given experience is an experience apparently tied to a particular individual). It is in this respect very different from the other phenomena studied by science, where while the phenomena may be observed by a particular individual they are considered to be in principle independent of that individual. To say that an individual’s expe…Read more
  •  2645
    Wheeler proposed that repeated acts of observation give rise to the reality that we observe, but offered no detailed mechanism for this. Here this creative process is accounted for on the basis of the idea that nature has a deep technological aspect that evolves as a result of selection processes that act upon observers making use of the technologies. This leads to the conclusion that our universe is the product of agencies that use these evolved technologies to suit particular purposes (MS ba…Read more
  •  265
    Roger Penrose, The Large, the Small and the Human Mind (review)
    Journal of Consciousness Studies 4 (3): 271-273. 1997.
  •  1014
    Biological utilization of quantum nonlocality
    with Fotini Pallikari-Viras
    Foundations of Physics 21 (2): 197-207. 1991.
    The perception of reality by biosystems is based on different, and in certain respects more effective, principles than those utilized by the more formal procedures of science. As a result, what appears as random pattern to the scientific method can be meaningful pattern to a living organism. The existence of this complementary perception of reality makes possible in principle effective use by organisms of the direct interconnections between spatially separated objects shown to exist in the work …Read more