Some Thoughts on Neural Networks and Consciousness

The brain is a “neural network”. In the brain, the “neural network” consists of the interactions between individual brain neurons, the properties of the neurons, and the external effects of those interactions and properties.

There are 7 essential properties to the network. Lacking any of the 7 properties, the “network” isn’t a network. Lacking any of these properties the network (in this case, the brain) doesn’t work.

The 7 properties are:

1. Individual neuron cells can communicate with each other in some way.

2. Communications can be made or broken.

3. Communications between the neurons are “weighted” and those weights can change.

4. Neurons can die off or turn off.

5. Neurons can get input information from outside the system.

6. There is a certain amount of chaos or instability within the system.

7. Changes in the neural network produce changes outside the system.

The brain is not the only example of neural networks in nature. Other examples of neural networks are our immune systems and bacterial colonies. In fact, every system that has all the 7 criteria listed above can be regarded as a neural network.

Neural networks are not just special in the brain. They are special in that they are all forms of intelligence and they are all forms of life itself. While the simple neural networks are intelligent, they are NOT conscious (e.g. the immune system is no conscious.)

But consciousness results from the interactions between several neural networks. Basic neural networks we possess are our 5 senses.

1. Taste

2. Smell

3. Sight

4. Hearing

5. Touch

Plus mental neural networks

6. Thinking

7. Emotion

8. Dreaming

9. Memory

The tenth neural network we possess (the immune system) does not seem to be tied to the other neural networks whose interaction with each other produces consciousness.

These thoughts result from my interpretations of statements in the book, “The Genius Within”, by Frank Vertosick, published in 2002.