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Glossary:
Brain: a material organ that can evidently execute the three activities, including the highest-level ones of that animal, for the whole animal and is composed of material tissues and all their physical activities. (Introduction and Definitions)
Conscious awareness: awareness of what something is like. (Chapter 3)
Conscious experience: experience of what something is like. (Chapter 3)
Consciously experienceable: a mental phenomenon is consciously experienceable if the mind can be aware of and experience what that phenomenon is like.
(Equivalently): a mental phenomenon is consciously experienceable if awareness and an experience of what that phenomenon is like can occur in the mind. (Chapter 3)
Consciousness: the composite of all conscious awareness and conscious experiences.
(Equivalently): the composite of all awareness and experiences of what qualia are like.
(Equivalently): the composite of awareness and experiences of what things in the outside world are like in their various representations.
(Chapter 6)
Consciousness mental process: the mental process that functions to be consciously aware of and consciously experience mental phenomena.
(Equivalently): the mental process that functions to create conscious awareness and conscious experiences, or consciousness. (Chapter 6)
Consciousness neural circuit: the neural circuit that exists and functions with the consciousness mental process and produces consciousness. (Chapter 6)
Consciousness neural process: the signal-processing process of the consciousness neural circuit, which produces consciousness. (Chapter 6)
Conventional physical entity: an entity that is composed of elementary particles and their interactions. (Chapter 2)
Electrical/electrochemical-signal–processing process: a process that processes material electrical/electrochemical signals. (Chapter 2)
Explanatory gap: the problem of how phenomenal qualia and consciousness can arise from material, phenomenality-less physical systems, such as neural processes and the brain. (Chapter 8)
Extended mind: a mind with all mental processes, which include those in the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nervous system, and enteric nervous system. (Chapter 1)
External world: the world that includes everything except the mind and the place where it resides (the neural processes). (Chapter 1)
Hard problem (of consciousness and qualia): the problem of why and how consciousness and qualia occur in the physical system, such as the brain. (Chapter 9)
Ineffable: indescribable. (Chapter 3)
Information: a non-material thing that is transferable. (Introduction and Definitions, and Extra Chapter I)
(The full definition): a non-material thing that is transferable from one physical entity to another, consists of content, and can have physical effects on the receiver. (Extra Chapter I)
Information-processing process: a process that processes information. (Chapter 2)
Informational entity: a non-material entity that is composed of information and information processing. (Chapter 2)
Mechanical entity: an entity that is composed of elementary particles and their interactions. (Chapter 2)
Mental phenomenon (mental process phenomenon): the product of a mental process. (Introduction and Definitions)
Mental process: a mind’s component that performs any of the three activities. (Introduction and Definitions)
Mind: a non-material entity that exists in an animal with a nervous system and can evidently execute the three activities for the whole animal. (Introduction and Definitions)
Neural circuit: a group of neurons that are connected in a specific pattern to perform its principal function—to process signals for a certain operation. (Introduction and Definitions)
Neural process: the signal-processing process of a neural circuit. (Introduction and Definitions)
Outside world: the world that includes everything except the mind and the place where it resides (the neural processes). (Chapter 1)
Phenomenal characteristic: (see Phenomenality)
Phenomenal consciousness: another equivalent term for consciousness. (Chapter 6)
Phenomenal quale (qualia): another equivalent term of quale (qualia). (Chapter 3)
Phenomenal manifestation: a manifestation of what the quale (of something) is like in the mind. (Chapter 3)
Phenomenality (Phenomenal characteristic): the characteristic of manifesting what the quale of something is like in the mind. (Chapter 3)
Philosophical zombie (p-zombie): a being that is physically identical to a human but lacks qualia and consciousness. (Extra Chapter III)
Quale (qualia): a mental phenomenon that is consciously experienceable. (Chapter 3)
(Equivalently): a mental phenomenon that manifests what it is like in the mind. (Chapter 3)
(Equivalently): a mental phenomenon that exhibits a phenomenal manifestation. (Chapter 3)
Signaling pattern: the pattern of signaling that a neural circuit sends to another neural circuit to convey information. (Introduction and Definitions)
Signaling state: the pattern of signaling of a whole neural circuit, with signals circulating in the circuit in a particular pattern at a certain moment. (Introduction and Definitions)
Special signaling pattern: a neural process’s signaling pattern that can induce conscious awareness and a conscious experience of itself in the consciousness neural process. (Chapter 5)
Special signaling state: a reentrant signaling state with information that means conscious awareness and a conscious experience to the consciousness neural process. (Chapter 7)
Subjective experience: another term for conscious experience. (Chapter 3)
The three activities: the activities that include
i. sensing signals from outside the body, from the body parts, and from within the mind,
ii. acting on signals, resulting in various mental processes, and
iii. sending signals between the mental parts and to the effectors of the body.
(Introduction and Definitions)
Unconscious awareness: awareness of something without being aware of what it is like. (Chapter 3)
Unconsciously aware of: the mind is unconsciously aware of something if it is aware of that thing without being aware of what that thing is like. (Chapter 3)
Variable qualia: qualia that manifest themselves variably—manifesting themselves differently in the minds of different people—even though they are qualia of the same thing. (Extra Chapter II)
List of Abbreviations
Abbreviation Definition
AI artificial intelligence
ECoG electrocorticography
EEG electroencephalography
E/EC electrical/electrochemical
EPP electrical/electrochemical-signal–processing process
fMRI functional magnetic resonance imaging
IPP information-processing process
MEG magnetoencephalography
ms millisecond
mya million years ago
SP signaling pattern
SS signaling state
SSP special signaling pattern
SSS special signaling state
List of Figures
Chapter 2:
Figure 2.1 M exists and functions separately from all neural processes and the brain
Figure 2.2 A functionally inherent IPP (looping arrows)
Chapter 3:
Figure 3.1 Image, sound, and odor qualia
Figure 3.2 Mental phenomena that (A) are and (B) are not consciously experienceable
Figure 3.3 Finger sausage illusion
Figure 3.4 Image qualia of the same thing among different subjects
Chapter 4:
Figure 4.1 Two color-qualia spectra of the light spectrum
Figure 4.2 A pitch-qualia spectrum from C4 (261.63 Hz) to C6 (1046.50 Hz)
Chapter 5:
Figure 5.1 Qualia exist as separate entities
Figure 5.2 Information exists as intrinsic entities
Figure 5.3 Q functionally exists separately from all neural processes
Figure 5.4 Effects of a quale
Chapter 7:
Figure 7.1 Conscious awareness occurs separately (C) or intrinsically (C’)
Figure 7.2 Effects of integration centers without and with consciousness
Chapter 8:
Figure 8.1 Various signals with different information meanings
Figure 8.2 The mechanism for a signal and information to mean a quale
Figure 8.3 Signals in the view of an outside observer O
Figure 8.4 The world of an information-processing process (IPP)
Figure 8.5 Appearances of different types of information in the IPP
Figure 8.6 A cathode-ray tube analogy
Figure 8.7 The signaling state in the view of an outsider
Figure 8.8 The world of the IPP of a signaling state
Figure 8.9 Appearances of a red color quale and the consciousness of it in the IPP
Figure 8.10 WE
Extra Chapter I:
Figure I.1 What does “information” mean
Figure I.2 Patterns of an object O comprising two lines
Figure I.3 Two-finger Pattern
Figure I.4 Information leaping from the man?
Figure I.5 How information exerts its effects
Figure I.6 The mechanism for signal S with information I to mean M to receiver R
Extra Chapter II:
Figure II.1 Variable color qualia among people
Figure II.2 (A color “C” square vs. a myriad-color square, no caption)
Figure II.3 (A color “C” square vs. a red-color square, no caption)
Figure II.4 (A pair of two red discs vs. a pair of red and blue discs, no caption)
Figure II.5 Qualia 1 and 2 manifest as different color pairs in three people
Figure II.6 (Two different color wheels, no caption)
Figure II.7 A: a normal color-qualia spectrum, B: an inverted color-qualia spectrum
Figure II.8 The light spectrum as seen in the normal (A) and inverted (B) forms
Figure II.9 Non-shifted (A) and shifted (B) color-qualia spectra
Figure II.10 Two identical-structure color-qualia spectra
Figure II.11 Your (A) and my (B) light spectrum qualia
Extra Chapter III:
Figure III.1 P-zombie: physically identical to a human but lacking Q & C
Figure III.2 P-zombie’s perception vs. human’s perception
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