To explain how stimuli cause consciousness, we have to explain causality. We can't trace linear causal chains from receptors after the first cortical synapse, so we use circular causality to explain neural pattern formation by self-organizing dynamics. But an aspect of intentional action is causality, which we extrapolate to material objects in the world. Thus causality is a property of mind, not matter.

The history of brain theory is described in terms of three kinds of theory of perception. The most widely used kind sees perception as dependent on passive inflow from the environment of information that is used to make and process representations of objects and events. A second kind views perception as an active search for information that is inherent in the environment and is extracted by tuned resonances in brain circuits. A third kind holds that perception works by the creation of information through chaotic dynamics by forming hypotheses about the environment, through which learning takes place. Experimental evidence for creative dynamics in brains is briefly sketched. The explanation is offered that brains, being finite systems, work this way in order to cope with the infinite complexity of the world. All that brains can know is the hypotheses they construct and the results of testing them by acting into the environment, and learning by assimilation from the sensory consequences of their actions. The process is described as intentionality. It works through the action-perception-assimilation cycle. The cost of this solution to the problem of infinite complexity by hypothesis testing is the progressive isolation of individuals, as they accumulate their unique experiences through which their personalities form. Socialization and the acquisition of shared knowledge requires the emergence of new personality structure by self-organization through chaotic dissolution of existing structure, as prelude to creation of new traits, habits and values. Dissolution works in a crisis situation by regression to earlier stages of development, from which a fresh start can be made. A state of malleability emerges in the depth of crisis, in which compassionate companions through lovin...

Perception is an intentional action through space in time by which the finite brain explores the infinite world. By acting, the brain thrusts its body into the future spacetime of the world while predicting the sensory consequences. Through perceiving its actions and their results, it remembers its predictions, its actions, and their consequences. To perform these operations the brain, through chaotic dynamics, constructs and uses finite perceptual matrices of spacetime and infers causation. Perceived time differs from world time in ways that are determined by the neural mechanisms of intentionality. In particular, perception of the self in action, through the mechanism of preafference, gives structure and content to the concepts of continuity, contiguity, duration, temporal order, cause, and effect. Perceptual scales are expanded beyond kinesthesia by conversion of time into space, such as by clocks and calendars. Remembered time differs from perceived time in being dependent on awareness, which makes it episodic, fragmentary, and subject to large variations in rates of time lapse in the flow of meanings. The attribution of causal agency to objects and events in the world results from anthropomorphization in accordance with the neural mechanisms of the internal perception of intentional action.

In a passive information processing system a stimulus input gives information, which is transduced by receptors into trains of impulses that signify the features of an object. The symbols are processed according to rules for learning and association and are then bound into a representation, which is stored, retrieved and matched with new incoming representations. In active systems perception begins with the emergence of a goal that is implemented by the search for information. The only input accepted is that which is consistent with the goal and anticipated as a consequence of the searching actions. The key component to be modeled in brains provides the dynamics that constructs goals and the adaptive actions by which they are achieved.

Emotion is defined as a property of intentional behavior. The widespread practice of separating emotion from reason is traced to an ancient distinction between passive perception, which is driven by sensory information from the environment, and active perception, which begins with dynamics in the brain that moves the body into the environment in search of stimuli. The neurodynamics of intentional behavior is reviewed, with emphasis on the limbic system that controls the autonomic and neuroendocrine systems in the brain and body, directing them for the support of the musculoskeletal system that is executing the behavior. An essential part of intentionality is learning from the sensory consequences of one's own actions. The perception of emotional states through awareness involves global states of cooperative activity in the forebrain, which have internal contributions from the many parts of the brain that join in making these states, and inevitably there are contributions from the sensory systems of the body that implement and signal emotional states. The distinction between "rational " versus "emotional " behaviors is made in terms of the constraint of high-intensity chaotic activity of components of the forebrain by the cooperative dynamics of consciousness versus the escape of subsystems owing to an excess of chaotic fluctuations in states of strong arousal. Aquinas.txt 2 Walter J Freeman

We humans and other animals continuously construct and maintain our grasp of the world by using astonishingly small snippets of sensory information. Recent studies in nonlinear brain dynamics have shown how this occurs: brains imagine possible futures and seek and use sensory stimulation to select among them as guides for chosen actions. On the one hand the scientific explanation of the dynamics is inaccessible to most of us. On the other hand the philosophical foundation from which the sciences grew is accessible through the work of one of its originators, Thomas Aquinas. The core concept of intention in Aquinas is the inviolable unity of mind, brain and body. All that we know we have constructed within ourselves from the unintelligible fragments of energy impacting our senses as we move our bodies through the world. This process of intention is transitive

Perception is an intentional action by which the finite brain explores the infinite world. By acting, the brain thrusts its body into the future spacetime of the world while predicting the sensory consequences. By perceiving its actions and their results, it remembers its predictions. To perform these operations the brain, through chaotic dynamics, constructs and uses finite perceptual matrices of space, time and causation. Perceived time differs from world time in ways that are determined by the neural mechanisms of intentionality. In particular, perception of the self in action, through the mechanism of preafference, gives structure and content to the concepts of contiguity, duration, temporal order, cause, and effect. Remembered time differs from perceived time in being dependent on awareness, which makes it episodic, fragmentary, and subject to large variations in rates of time lapse in the flow of meanings.

koniocortex; neural operator; number; neurodynamics; symbol Brains and computers are both dynamical systems that manipulate symbols, but they differ fundamentally in their architectures and operations. Human brains do mathematics; computers do not. Computers manipulate symbols that humans put into them without grounding them in what they represent. Human brains intentionally direct the body to make symbols, and they use the symbols to represent internal states. The symbols are outside the brain. Inside brains the construction is effected by spatiotemporal patterns of neural activity that are operators, not symbols. The operations include formation of sequences of neural activity patterns that we observe by their electrical signs. The process is by neurodynamics, not by logical rule-driven symbol manipulation. The aim of simulating human natural computing should be to simulate the operators. In its simplest form natural computing serves for communication of meaning. Neural operators implement non-symbolic communication of internal states by all mammals, including humans, through intentional actions. The neural operators that implement symbol formation must differ, but how is unknown, so we cannot yet simulate human natural computing. Here I propose that symbol-making operators evolved from neural mechanisms of intentional action by modification of non-symbolic operators. Both kinds of operators can be investigated by their signs of neuroelectric activity. I propose that the postulated differences should be sought by classification of the spatial textures of the signs in EEG recorded from the scalp overlying those cortical structures unique to humans in the brain that I designate as koniocortex, while the subjects are engaged in elementary arithmetic operations. 1.

Perception is an intentional action through space in time by which the finite brain explores the infinite world. By acting, the brain thrusts its body into the future spacetime of the world while predicting the sensory consequences. Through perceiving its actions and their results, it remembers its predictions, its actions, and their consequences. To perform these operations the brain, through chaotic dynamics, constructs and uses finite perceptual matrices of spacetime and infers causation. Perceived time differs from world time in ways that are determined by the neural mechanisms of intentionality. In particular, perception of the self in action, through the mechanism of preafference, gives structure and content to the concepts of continuity, contiguity, duration, temporal order, cause, and effect. Perceptual scales are expanded beyond kinesthesia by conversion of time into space, such as by clocks and calendars. Remembered time differs from perceived time in being dependent on awareness, which makes it episodic, fragmentary, and subject to large variations in rates of time lapse in the flow of meanings. The attribution of causal agency to objects and events in the world results from anthropomorphization in accordance with the neural mechanisms of the internal perception of intentional action. Time and Causation 2 Walter J Freeman

Abstract: The economics of international monies is likely to be informative about the future of the euro. The authors summarize the history of international monies, from the gold solidus introduced in the fourth century to the present. They identify four common characteristics of these currencies: high unitary value; relatively low inflation rates; issuance by major economic and trading powers; and spontaneous, as opposed to planned, adoption. Recent theoretical literature supports the importance of the characteristics, while recent theories’ common implication of multiple equilibria supports the importance of spontaneous adoption as developed by Menger and Hayek. JEL classification: E42, F33, N10 Key words: monetary history, international money, gold coinage The authors thank Sven Arndt, Benjamin J. Cohen, and George von Furstenberg for comments on earlier drafts of this paper and Linda Mundy for editorial assistance. This paper is a revised version of Dwyer and Lothian (2003). The views expressed here are the authors ’ and not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta or the Federal Reserve System. Any remaining errors are the authors ’ responsibility.