Previously I wrote about the problem of consciousness. I was reminded of that post when I read this article in Scientific America where John Horgan interviews physicist Lee Smolin. Here is an interchange I found interesting:
Horgan: Roger Penrose has suggested that a unified theory might also help solve the problem of consciousness. Do you agree?
Smolin: Roger is a deep and original thinker, who stands head and shoulders above almost everyone now living in the lasting importance of his thought and insights. Nonetheless, in this one regard I suspect he is overstepping the limits of present science. He is absolutely right that consciousness is real and that its role in nature is a physics problem. But I suspect physics needs to progress a lot more before we will have the vocabulary to frame useful hypotheses about consciousness.
Horgan: Does neuroscience offer a better future than physics for bright would-be scientists?
Smolin: Neurosciences are a fabulous area to work in, ripe for great discoveries. I’ve always felt this and indeed the only alternative to a career in physics that ever attracted me was a brief flirtation in college with neuroscience. But that is a field which is as bedeviled by outdated metaphysical baggage as physics is. In particular, the antiquated idea that any physical system that responds to and processes information is isomorphic to a digital programmable computer is holding back progress.
Physics is also ripe for great discoveries. The best advice I would give to would be scientists is to do what you most love, make sure you master the tools and technicalities and then try to get to that hot zone where you are in equal parts a rebel and a conservative.
In the middle of a quite interesting article, Smolin suggests that physics has something to say about the hard problem of consciousness that is, at its core and by its nature, subjective. And I truly believe that the neurosciences are going to have to purge themselves of those who tell just so stories (Here is one example, but there are many more. Google it.) before serious people will take them, well, seriously.
Betty Blonde #235 – 06/10/2009
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