Radiant Cool

by Lloyd, Dan Edward

• ISBN13: 9780262621939
• ISBN10: 0262621932
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-10-01
• Publisher: Bradford Books

Summary

Professor Grue is dead (or is he?). When graduate student/sleuth Miranda Sharpe discovers him slumped over his keyboard, she does the sensible thing--she grabs her dissertation and runs. Little does she suspect that soon she will be probing the heart of two mysteries, trying to discover what happened to Max Grue, and trying to solve the profound neurophilosophical problem of consciousness. Radiant Coolmay be the first novel of ideas that actually breaks new theoretical ground, as Dan Lloyd uses a neo-noir (neuro-noir?), hard-boiled framework to propose a new theory of consciousness. In the course of her sleuthing, Miranda encounters characters who share her urgency to get to the bottom of the mystery of consciousness, although not always with the most innocent motives. Who holds the key to Max Grue's ultimate vision? Is it the computer-inspired pop psychologist talk-show host? The video-gaming geek with a passion for artificial neural networks? The Russian multi-dimensional data detective, or the sophisticated neuroscientist with the big book contract? Ultimately Miranda teams up with the author's fictional alter ego, "Dan Lloyd," and together they build on the phenomenological theories of philosopher Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) to construct testable hypotheses about the implementation of consciousness in the brain. Will the clues of phenomenology and neuroscience converge in time to avert a catastrophe? (The dramatic ending cannot be revealed here.) Outside the fictional world of the novel, Dan Lloyd (the author) appends a lengthy afterword, explaining the proposed theory of consciousness in more scholarly form. Radiant Coolis a real metaphysical thriller--based in current philosophy of mind--and a genuine scientific detective story--revealing a new interpretation of functional brain imaging. With its ingenious plot and its novel theory, Radiant Coolwill be enjoyed in the classroom and the study for its entertaining presentation of phenomenology, neural networks, and brain imaging; but, most importantly, it will find its place as a groundbreaking theory of consciousness.

Author Biography

Dan Lloyd is Professor of Philosophy at Trinity College in Connecticut, and winner of the first New Perspectives in Functional Brain Imaging Research award, given by the Functional MRI Data Center and the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Prologue	xv
Part One. The Thrill of Phenomenology	1	(222)
Part Two. The Real Firefly: Reflections on a Science of Consciousness	223	(110)
The Wrong Toolbox?	225	(24)
One and Many Consciousnesses	227	(2)
Detectorheads	229	(3)
Houses, Faces, Chairs	232	(5)
The Real Firefly	237	(2)
Clever Leeches and Sympathetic Thermostats	239	(6)
Everything Goes	245	(4)
Real Life: The Subjective View of Objectivity	249	(26)
Stage 1: Intentionality	252	(2)
Stage 2: Superposition	254	(4)
Stage 3: Transcendence	258	(2)
Stage 4: Temporality	260	(2)
Stage 5: Temporality (1), the Threefold Present	262	(5)
Stage 6: Temporality (2), the Order of Moments	267	(3)
Stage 7: Temporality (3), Phenomenal Recursivity	270	(3)
The Rest of the Story	273	(2)
Brains in Toyland	275	(34)
Beep . . . Boop	277	(1)
CNVnet	278	(6)
Into the Net	284	(7)
Having It All	291	(7)
Our Multivariate World	298	(2)
Toy Temporality	300	(5)
What Is It Like to Be a Net?	305	(4)
Braintime	309	(24)
Indices of Temporality	310	(8)
Tributaries of the Stream	318	(7)
Retention Revealed	325	(3)
To the Future	328	(1)
And Beyond?	328	(5)
Sources and Notes	333	(18)
References	351