Probably some have already read this paper, but i find it really interesting. The site is also very interesting.
http://www.imagination-engines.com/devo.htm
© 1996, Stephen L. Thaler, Imagination Engines, Inc., in collaboration with machine intelligence*
"
Abstract: Contrary to the popular notion that consciousness is the
result of a
noble evolutionary process, I speculate that this rather ill-defined
concept and
phenomenon may be the result of the fragmentation of an otherwise
completely
connected and totally ‘feeling’ universe. As various regions of this
universe
topologically pinch-off from the whole, connection-sparse boundaries
form over
which sporadic and impoverished information exchange takes place.
Supplied
with only scanty clues about the state of the external world, abundant
internal
chaos drives these small parallel processing islands into multiple
‘interpretations’ of the environment in a process we identify with
perception.
With further division of these regions by insulating partitions, the
resulting
subregions activate to lend multiple interpretation to the random
activations of
others in a manner reminiscent of internal imagery. The spontaneous
invention of
significance by this weakly coupled assembly of simple computational
units to its
own overall collective behavior is what we have grown to recognize as
biological consciousness. We thereby come to view human cortical
activity as a
highly degraded approximation to the original and prototypical cosmic
connectivity.
"
delriviere
christophe