Hidden In Plain Sight 12: Consciousness and the Steam Engine Paperback – Import, 20 January 2021

"Hidden in Plain Sight 12" is a continuation of Dr. Thomas' evolving theory of consciousness. Who else besides Andrew Thomas would imagine there's a relationship between consciousness and a steam engine? And who else besides him could explain an extremely complex and and times confusing topic to the general public in a clear, straightforward manner?Heat energy -- the random, disorderly motion of atoms -- not only drives steam engines, but it also is an integral part of consciousness. Conscious activity is possible only through irreversible processes, resulting in an internal loss of information. The internal information lost then MUST be released into the external environment in the form of heat. The metric used to measure internal information of a system is equal to Log W, where W is the number of states the system possess. Multiplying Log W by the Boltzmann constant, k, gives entropy in the form of heat -- the disorganized, random motion of atoms.Dr. Thomas utilizes the logic gate to illustrate how internal information is lost. Consider the AND gate with two binary inputs and one binary output. There are four input states, (00), (01), (10) and (11), but only two output states (0) and (1). An output state of (1) must correspond to a unique input state of (11), but an output state of (0) could correspond to either (00), (01), or (10). Thus, every time the operation of an AND gate results in the (0) output state, there is uncertainty concerning the input state. This causes internal information to be lost, which must be released as entropy into the environment in the form of heat. According to the Landauer Principle, which Dr. Thomas discussed in this book as well in previous books, the amount of heat energy released into the environment is proportional to the temperature of the physical substrate on which the gate operates. Dr. Thomas points out that some logic gates reset to a "ground state" after each operation, which causes a kind of "amnesia" and a loss of internal information. (This is similar to the steam engine when it completes a cycle and returns to its initial state.)To summarize Dr. Thomas' theory: It is based on the premise that conscious activity can only result from an irreversible process, and this always results in the generation of heat. Therefore, there can be no conscious activity without producing heat.I am not in a position to judge whether or not this novel theory is correct. It seems to be supported by the fact that the brain consists of billions of neurons acting as irreversible logic gates, and these neurons generate copious amounts of heat; however, it should be noted that this correlation with theory is interesting but it is not a proof. Personally, I favor the model referred to as idealism, where the physical reality emerges from consciousness instead of the other way around.I would note that the argument that consciousness requires an irreversible process appears to directly contradict Roger Penrose's conjecture that consciousness cannot be produced by any algorithm as a consequence of Godel's incompleteness theorem. This is a contradiction because any neural network comprised of irreversible logic gates can be replaced by an algorithm, which is incapable of producing consciousness according to Penrose. Dr. Thomas' theory would also seem to rule out the possibility of consciousness arising from reversible quantum logic gates, which are discussed in Dr. Thomas' Book 10. (As a science-fiction buff, I find this rather disappointing because I was hoping that artificial consciousness could be achieved through powerful quantum computers. I had always imagined that HAL 9000 in "2001 A Space Odyssey" was a quantum machine.)Despite the difficulty noted above, I highly recommend this book. It is very well written and the underlying concepts are presented in a way that are very easy for any lay person to grasp. The Kindle version contains lots of links to YouTube videos produced by the author, which are not only informative but very entertaining to watch. I'm very much looking forward to Book 15. Five stars!

I have now read all Andrew Thomas' books and thoroughly enjoyed all of them. I find them all fascinating and also easily readable. They are well referenced and as well as presenting the information in an enjoyable way it covers it in surprising depth. The bonus is his own take on the subject that comes towards the end of each.I highly recommend them all.

I enjoyed this book. I like the way Andrew recapitulates important ideas before he presents new material. Consciousness for Dummies. Fits me just right.

A well written book on a subject that has never really got my interest until now. If you want to know or have interesting take on what makes us who we are then read this book. I have all of this authors books and all of them make interesting and thought provoking reading. You might not agree with his views or theories but you cannot disagree with the science.

Andrew Thomas describes as theory of emerging consciousness involving large numbers of connected neuronal logic gates producing information loss and thermodynamic heat production with increased entropy., I have read all of Andrew Thomas is hidden in plain sight series, This 12th book of the series this book may not solve the hard problem of consciousness. The relationship with heat and entropy is intriguing, information is physical .Perhaps with rapid firing of neurons consciousness may emerge, but the author seems to equate consciousness with logic, information processing and computing. pure consciousness, the experiential observer. The"I am", self referential experience that Crick called the feeling of being. It's more than a feeling, it's feeling oneself feeling oneself. This is a type of squaring or of feedback that can lead to an infinite progression. This is discussed by Douglas Hofstadter. Do computers have a mind's I ? The importance of being in a feedback loop.The experiencer of the sensory ,thought and existential presence of the phenomenonal personal world. Just as external reality has a ground of being the background of the noumenon. Just as the visual cortex makes a selective qualia of visual input , the qualia of I am.at it is very likely that the parts of the brain responsible for consciousness are the:Brain stem,Thalamus and Two sections of the cerebral cortex which make up the reticular activating system , perhaps create a qualia composed of sense organs input ,thoughts and feelings. and wave functions as Koch says quoting a 9th century monk:“I shall soon enter this broad desert, perfectly level and boundless, where the truly pious heart succumbs in bliss. I shall sink into the divine shadow, in a dumb silence and an ineffable union, and in this sinking all equality and all inequality shall be lost, and in that abyss my spirit will lose itself, and will not know the equal or the unequal, or anything else, and all differences will be forgotten.”