BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

About

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

AWARENESS vs. CONSCIOUSNESS 3)4)

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According to Susan Blakemore, awareness is a moment-to-moment phenomenon (2002, p. 26).

It is the result of instantaneous perception, that can be repetitive, but in a discontinuous manner.

Moreover awareness is always awareness of "something". It necessarily supposes an experience of some event "there outside". But the experience is "inside" as it is basically a complex computation process in a neural network.

It is also automatic. We do not need to decide that we are going to perceive: we just do.

As our nervous system possesses somehow the faculty of remembering former experiences we easily gain the impression of a continuity of consciousness. In fact it seems that this is also a construction in our nervous system which somehow throws bridges between these discontinuous moments of awareness.

The nature of the bridges is probably related to the continuous existence of a neuronal net in our brain, which becomes repeatedly reorganized after each experience. this is the gist of Maturana and Varela concept of Autopoiesis.(see J. Gran, 2002, p. 46-49)

→ Hippocampus

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

Publisher

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]

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