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Soul - Just an iterative activity of the brain?

A very interesting debate on the understanding of ‘Consciousness’ is recounted in the article ‘A Science of the Soul’ by author Joshua Rothman published in The New Yorker. (Source: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/27/daniel-dennetts-science-of-the-soul ) 2 theories exist: one is championed by Dr. Daniel Dennett who believes that Consciousness is the product of a multi-layered program running in the brain. His theory forms its basis on the ‘physicality’ or ‘materiality’ of the brain, namely - the neural network. Over a period of time, the brain develops a ‘sort of’ sense of consciousness. The theory suggests that if a robot is programmed with intelligence, it will develop an ‘understanding of self’ over a period of time. The second camp – the ‘dualists’ confirm with the empirical approach, however they also desire the reasoning for the existence of the ‘self’.   Professor David Chalmers, a proponent of this camp, questions - ‘How does the inner space of consciousn

Future Ready, Past Perfect

As a prequel viewing to the Blade Runner 2049, I recently watched the original Blade Runner that was released in 1982. What seems amazing is the vision of the creators (mentioned below), who about 40 years ago, imagined the future for the year 2019. We are nearing 2018 now, already engaging and adapting to the then-envisioned ideas in our everyday lives. Surprisingly we are future ready (present now) with the past almost perfectly predicted. Voice operated elevators and computers, motion responsive habitats, iris-scanning devices, omnipresent digital advertising screens, images with high-end meta-data were ideas conceptualized then and made real on screen. In the movie, Artificial Intelligent bots have a high EQ, understand and instill desired emotional responses in humans, thereby outsmarting them. Ordinary folks running small businesses on streets are tech-adept and equipped with DNA readers. One can relate this to today’s scenario of about 300 million smartphone users in India w