The Deconstruction of Time and the Emergence of Temporality

Ruhnau, Eva

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-60707-3_5

Cited by 29 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…This result is in striking correspondence with Price's proposal [3] to take bidirectional causation seriously once the psychological time arrow is cleanly separated from the discussion. 6 It is essential for the presented argument that properties at the mental level of description emerge from properties at the neuronal level of description and cannot be strictly reduced to that level. The key issue for the scheme of contextual emergence applied here [8,9] is that a stability condition, induced by a contingent context available at the mental level of description, is at the neuronal level of description.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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From the Dynamics of Coupled Map Lattices to the Psychological Arrow of Time

Atmanspacher¹,

Filk²,

Scheingraber³

2006

AIP Conference Proceedings

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Stable neuronal assemblies are generally regarded as neural correlates of mental representations. Their temporal sequence corresponds to the experience of a direction of time, sometimes called the psychological time arrow. We show that the stability of particular, biophysically motivated models of neuronal assemblies, called coupled map lattices, is supported by causal interactions among neurons and obstructed by non-causal or anti-causal interactions among neurons. This surprising relation between causality and stability suggests that those neuronal assemblies that are stable due to causal neuronal interactions, and thus correlated with mental representations, generate a psychological time arrow. Yet this impact of causal interactions among neurons on the directed sequence of mental representations does not rule out the possibility of mentally less efficacious non-causal or anti-causal interactions among neurons.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An earlier account by Dennett and Kinsbourne [5], focusing on the neurobiological basis of time in the brain, is also readable, especially since it is published together with a number of controversial commentaries. Physical, neurobiological and psychological notions of time have been addressed by Ruhnau [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From the Dynamics of Coupled Map Lattices to the Psychological Arrow of Time

Atmanspacher¹,

Filk²,

Scheingraber³

2006

AIP Conference Proceedings

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“…It is a before/after experience that makes it possible to experience duration and duration judgment. Temporality correlates with the physical succession or successivity of events, and Ruhnau (1997) reviewed it in detail.…”

Section: Duration Duration Judgment and Temporalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The responses to any series of stimuli, including intervening perceptual completion, that comprises an interval of 3-7 s, are part of the specious present (Block, 1979;Durgin & Sternberg, 2002;Fairhall et al, 2014;Gruber, 2008;Kinsbourne & Hicks, 1990;Pöppel, 1997;Ruhnau, 1997). The specious present is frequently referred to as the now, causing some confusion in definitions.…”

Section: Perceptual Completion In the Specious Presentmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Illusory Flow and Passage of Time within Consciousness: A Multidisciplinary Analysis

Gruber

Smith

Block

2018

Timing Time Percept.

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Flow and passage of time puzzles were analyzed by first clarifying their roles in the current multidisciplinary understanding of time in consciousness. All terms ( flow, passage, happening, becoming) are carefully defined. Flow and passage are defined differently, the former involving the psychological aspects of time and the latter involving the evolving universe and associated new cerebral events. The concept of the flow of time (FOT) is deconstructed into two levels: (a) a lower level -a perceptual dynamic flux, or happening, or flow of events (not time); and (b) an upper level -a cognitive view of past/present/future in which the observer seems to move from one to the other. With increasing evidence that all perception is a discrete continuity provided by illusory perceptual completion, the lower-level FOT is essentially the result of perceptual completion. The brain conflates the expression flow (passage, for some) of time with experiences of perceptual completion. However, this is an illusory percept. Converging evidence on the upper-level FOT reveals it as a false cognition that has the illusory percept of object persistence as its prerequisite. To research this argument, an experiment that temporarily removes the experience of the lower-level FOT might be conducted. The claustrum of the brain (arguably the center of consciousness) should be intermittently stimulated to create a scenario of discrete observations (involving all the senses) with long interstimulus intervals of nonconsciousness and thereby no perceptual completion. Without perceptual completion, there should be no subjective experience of the lower-level FOT.

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“…Classically, there are three components to the flow of time: an objective 'present', an objective direction, and an objective 'dynamism' (Price, 1996). To be clear about what is meant by the FOT we first deconstructed that expression (Ruhnau, 1997) and suggested thinking of it in terms of the flow of events (Gibson, 1975;Park, 1999). Williams (1951) may have been the first to suggest that we do not experience time per se but rather events.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Falsification Experiments for Spacetime Theories from the Neurological Sciences

2018

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One difficulty with spacetime theories is the absence of falsifications tests. Because the observer is part of quantum mechanics (QM) and therefore an obligatory part of cosmological theories that incorporate QM, the neurological sciences have a legitimate role. We examined six different QM based cosmological theories. They make implications about various aspects of the flow of time (FOT)-the past/present/future experience including subjective dynamism). First, a distinction is made between the FOT and the physical passage of time (POT), the occurrence of a new physical event at the periphery of an expanding universe. Four theories suggesting a real POT are the Evolving Block Universe, the Spacetime Dynamics Theory, Causal Set Cosmology; and Muller's cosmology. However, they retain the past/present components of the Block Universe and imply that the upper level FOT (the experience that the 'present' is unique) is illusory. A falsification experiment is proposed utilizing Hartle's proposed Information and Gathering and Utilizing Systems (IGUSs), which have different experiences of the 'present'. A virtual reality IGUS which can experientially navigate between past and present is suggested. It could confirm their implication that the experience of past/present events is not unique (i.e., it is a variable cognition). Barbour's timeless theory involves relative configuration spaces which contain enough information to provide an illusory dynamic scene. That experience of dynamism within that scene is said to be an illusion. A second falsification experiment is proposed to remove dynamism suggesting it is an irrelevant experience. It involves intermittent stimulation of the newly discovered consciousness center (the claustrum) to create brief intervals of unconsciousness. Doing this precludes the recently discovered 'happening' percept which can account for the entirely of dynamism (the lower level FOT). The negative implication for Temporal Naturalism in the Cosmological Natural Selection theory is briefly discussed.

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The Deconstruction of Time and the Emergence of Temporality

Cited by 29 publications

References 11 publications

From the Dynamics of Coupled Map Lattices to the Psychological Arrow of Time

From the Dynamics of Coupled Map Lattices to the Psychological Arrow of Time

The Illusory Flow and Passage of Time within Consciousness: A Multidisciplinary Analysis

Falsification Experiments for Spacetime Theories from the Neurological Sciences

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