By DaSt
If consciousness makes an individual feel cold or thirsty, what makes the person react to it? If a person knows, what makes that knowledge usable? Consciousness is available and almost completely predictable. Intelligence is rare, especially the specialized type, for purposes. As artificial intelligence takes off, the most important research priority in science is human intelligence. What exactly is it? How does it work? What, in the brain, is responsible for intelligence? Can it be naturally optimized to withstand artificial intelligence? Can a display be possible for a parallel to explore how it works and so forth?
Sedona, AZ –Big Think recently made a consciousness issue, where the letter [August 20, 2025] from the editor stated, “From the inside, however, we know consciousness intimately. It’s there in every answer to the question, “What is it like?” What is it like to see the color red? To feel your feet burn on hot sand, then run into the ocean? To smell garlic and herbs sautéed in a pan? To hear your daughter laugh? The best we can do is sketch the answers to those questions. But explaining exactly how — or, maybe more tantalizingly, why — consciousness arises continues to elude us.”
At this time in this world, human intelligence is more important to study and understand than human consciousness. Yes, consciousness is extensive, but with artificial intelligence doing a lot of what human intelligence can do, it is time to look at intelligence as a priority of existence and civilization.
Why would a major media company do an issue on consciousness, when there is no new idea to present? When the issue is likely to fall flat? And when consciousness is not what would stoke interest, even if something marginally new is mentioned? Why not explore intelligence instead? Why not bring a spotlight on how human intelligence works? Why not discuss possibilities for humans as artificial intelligence soars?
As at this time, there is no human intelligence research lab in this world. This means that there is no single research lab studying the brain directly for how intelligence uses what is in memory. If an individual knows something, how is that thing used for a surpassing outcome in reality? Are neurons memory? If they are, how so? Are synapses intelligence? If so, how? What else are the options, to model say, knowing, with memory and using it, with intelligence?
Humanity is facing a major threat from displacement by AI, in several applicable areas of intelligence. Already, human society is dominated by digital, which is becoming the forte of AI. AI may excel at everything digital, regardless of endeavors. Even if people are cautious about the use of AI in those roles, if AI can do it, it is an option on the table.
Intelligence and Consciousness
The first thing to note is that in the brain, there are components and those components have their attributes. The separation, for example, of intelligence, from memory, or emotions, or feelings or others could be attributes of the components that are directly responsible for the functions.
Theoretical progress in neuroscience is to identify the direct components and postulate their attributes, dividing the across functions. If consciousness is subjective experience, what are the components of subjective experience, what are the attributes? If intelligence is how memory is used, what are the components and attributes? Are they similar or different?
It is proposed that electrical and chemical signals are directly responsible for intelligence, consciousness, memory and other functions, in the nervous system, for human life and experiences. It is possible to build a mechanism around the signals, going beyond neurons, as a way to explain how human intelligence works and consciousness.
This would make better difference than discussing consciousness as a philosophical problem, which it isn’t, or some other random theory. While consciousness is vital, for now, human intelligence is a necessity for advancement. Exploring it in major ways could become a new path to progress, including with a lab for research in human intelligence.
There is a recent [August 22, 2025] article on EdSurge, More Schools Are Considering Education-Focused AI Tools. What’s the Best Way to Use Them?, stating that, “Discussion about the use of AI in the classroom has become as commonplace as pencils or notebooks, but many have struggled when it comes to implementing and deploying the ubiquitous technology. A new report looks at how — and if — AI tools specifically geared toward the education sector can ultimately help educators.”
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1 Comment
It’s becoming clear that with all the brain and consciousness theories out there, the proof will be in the pudding. By this I mean, can any particular theory be used to create a human adult level conscious machine. My bet is on the late Gerald Edelman’s Extended Theory of Neuronal Group Selection. The lead group in robotics based on this theory is the Neurorobotics Lab at UC at Irvine. Dr. Edelman distinguished between primary consciousness, which came first in evolution, and that humans share with other conscious animals, and higher order consciousness, which came to only humans with the acquisition of language. A machine with only primary consciousness will probably have to come first.
What I find special about the TNGS is the Darwin series of automata created at the Neurosciences Institute by Dr. Edelman and his colleagues in the 1990’s and 2000’s. These machines perform in the real world, not in a restricted simulated world, and display convincing physical behavior indicative of higher psychological functions necessary for consciousness, such as perceptual categorization, memory, and learning. They are based on realistic models of the parts of the biological brain that the theory claims subserve these functions. The extended TNGS allows for the emergence of consciousness based only on further evolutionary development of the brain areas responsible for these functions, in a parsimonious way. No other research I’ve encountered is anywhere near as convincing.
I post because on almost every video and article about the brain and consciousness that I encounter, the attitude seems to be that we still know next to nothing about how the brain and consciousness work; that there’s lots of data but no unifying theory. I believe the extended TNGS is that theory. My motivation is to keep that theory in front of the public. And obviously, I consider it the route to a truly conscious machine, primary and higher-order.
My advice to people who want to create a conscious machine is to seriously ground themselves in the extended TNGS and the Darwin automata first, and proceed from there, by applying to Jeff Krichmar’s lab at UC Irvine, possibly. Dr. Edelman’s roadmap to a conscious machine is at https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.10461, and here is a video of Jeff Krichmar talking about some of the Darwin automata, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7Uh9phc1Ow