Hi Eric,

 

  Thanks for these questions.

 

1. I believe the question was sparked by this article on “sensory consciousness” in crows and evidence that they know that recognize an experience (i.e., with training, they can have conscious access to their subjective experience). It was a good article and an interesting experiment. It offers very strong evidence for subjective experience in crows. I would have been amazed if crows did not have subjective experience. Indeed, I believe it is likely subjective experience may go all the way “down” to insects. Here is a book on the evolution of sensory consciousness.

 

1a. Sensory consciousness is what I call “experiential consciousness” and corresponds to Mind2 in the language of the unified theory. That is different than Mind3, which emerges as a function of language in an explicitly aware intersubjective environment that uses propositions and requires individuals to give accounts for their action. From a ToK/UTOK vantage point, it is CRUCIAL to differentiate sensory/experiential consciousness from linguistically mediated self-consciousness. Bottom line is that we share in a largely continuous fashion experiential/sensory consciousness with many animals, but only humans are persons that have the fully developed capacity for self-conscious narration. The talk I gave this past week at the Stoa was on JUST and what makes human consciousness so different. I encourage you to check that out when it is posted.

 

2. The joint points are frames of understanding. No joint point can be considered to be complete. Quantum mechanics, general relativity and the Big Bang form the first Energy-to-Matter joint point. It is framed but not solved. Likewise, natural selection, genetics and cell (including epigenetic physiological developmental considerations) FRAME the evolutionary synthesis, but it is not complete. Behavioral Investment Theory frames the Life-to-Mind joint point that links behavioral selection, neurocomputation and whole brain activity, but it is not a complete understanding (still many mysteries about sentience, for example). JUST/JH frames the Mind-to-Culture joint point and boxes in language, justification processes, human self-consciousness and the evolution of the Culture-Person plane, but again many questions unanswered.

 

3. There have been many additions to the model. Its first publication is the Tree of Knowledge System and the Theoretical Unification of Psychology. That specifies only the first three key ideas of what becomes the Eight Key Ideas that make up the Unified Theory of Knowledge. The Garden—which represents the full system--has even more elements to it. There have been minor revisions, such as the fact that what I used to call the “Justification Hypothesis” is now Justification Systems Theory. I have not found many errors in the original formulation. Mostly adjustments to accommodate and assimilate and integrate more knowledge.

 

3a. Note that the ToK/UTOK by no means says the progression is inevitable. If we blow ourselves up tomorrow with a nuclear holocaust, all you do is remove the Culture and most of the Mind layers (i.e., assuming that all people and most animals go extinct following a nuclear Armageddon…maybe the cockroaches would find a path). Death is when the complexity bubbles pop. Thus, when I die, my Life-Mind-Culture systems of complex adaptation “pop” and what remains is my body operating at the Matter dimension.

 

3b. The 5^th joint point is the way I describe the current situation we find ourselves in. There are needed developments in both our knowledge systems and how we conceive of our identities and how we raise our children. I love Rob’s Fundamental Shift because he points to many ways of being that fall under what I call a “Meta-Cultural Consciousness” kind of awakening.  We need to put our Energy into that direction, which yields the fun “equation” of E=>MC²

 

Best,
Gregg

 

 

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