As you may have read on my CV, I am writing my dissertation on the potentially important work being done in science fiction on minds and brains. Specifically, I will read the works of several authors through the lens of cognitive cultural studies with the goal to establish the significance of science fiction to literary studies as well as cognitive science.
I have been long interested in the human mind. I wrote a 20 page paper in my high school psychology class on consciousness after reading Roger Penrose’s book The Emperor’s New Mind. At the University of Liverpool, I took part in a study on human facial aesthetics only after receiving the researcher’s promise that I could have a copy of my MRI dicom data so that I could look at my brain in the comfort of my own home.
Until recently, I had forgotten about a panel that I attended at the 2008 Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts conference in Charlotte, NC. Titled “The Cognitive Game,” the panelists discussed different aspects of cognition in and through literature. I remembered this panel only after browsing an old notebook about a week ago when I ran across my notes. This bit of happenstance is itself a hallmark of my mind and the way my memory works. So much seems lost to the past, but I can capture glimpses of the past through my notes. However, I honestly have very little memory of the panel even after reading through my notes. In a sense, it seems like I wasn’t really there, but I do know that the notes are mine. You may have noticed that I take copious notes in class or at conferences. Part of this is an attempt to help me remember things in the short term while maintaining my focus on what is being discussed. It is also my effort at recalling things at a later time–if I have a chance to go back and review my notes. Unfortunately, I do not always have the time to really go back through all of my notes–at least not as thoroughly as I would like.
As an exercise to help retrieve weak connections in my mind’s holographic memory, I copy my notes from “The Cognitive Game” panel below.
Notes:
Saturday 10:30 panel
The Cognitive Game
Sarah Birge – “Paper Memories”
narrative identity theory
trauma disrupts narrative
loss of self without normal brain function
“disnarrativia”
Richard Powers and Umberto Eco novels
how to compensate for these disruptions
Andy Clark
self as tool kit — Dennet
The Echo Maker – Powers
Capgras Syndrome
recreation of self and creation of self by others
liminal state of Mark
enforcement of stable sense of self in the face of trauma
issues of dignity and self-determination
this would be good to add to BSG paper [note: this did not happen]
The Mysterious Flame _________ – Eco
persistence of self through time
cultural memory
Yambo’s “paper memory” vs. personal memory
“notebook of his mind”
dispersion of self into cultural memory
self and certainty-> allow space for others’ narratives
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Mark Clark – “Post-traumatic Experiential”
Nabokov – it is the re-reading that matters (?)
villanelle vs. narrative sense of self
Dylan Thomas – “Do not go Gently into That Good Night”
final words are a whisper
son is not finished project of the father
consider context of the words – respoken, altered meanings?
changing memory based on trauma
non-activation
therapeutic endeavor
absorption
audience – reader and participant in narrator’s trauma aftermath
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Pawel Frelik – “To Think or Not to Think”
begins with the novel that Sarah talked about
Richard Powers’ The Echo Maker
Antonio Damasio
Edelman and Tononi
Thomas Metzinger
D. M. Wagner
SF:
1) performance of subjectivity – PKD, terminal fictions, cyberpunk, surfaces
2) artificial intelligence – Maddox Halo, Galatea 2.2
3) cognitive processes problematized – Egan’s Oceanic, Moon – The Speed of Dark, Matt Ruff
intelligence vs. consciousness
alien narratives is one place this is engaged
morality or transcendence – imply consciousness
1) inescapably coupled – Dix and Williams, Echoes of Earth trilogy
2) possibly conflicting – Peter Watts – Blindsight
Echoes of Earth – ingrams of humanity
E.E. Smith – Lensman series
contrasts with Echoes of Earth
xenomorphism/exoticism
Blindsight – one of the most inventive novels of alien otherness in recent years
construct – “heaven”
third wave to make alien contact
“posthuman sociopaths”
Susan James – “gang of four” – multicore persona/ae
1) blindsight – brain lesions – see things without cognition
2) Chinese room – John Searle – 1980 – thought experiment
3) zombie – blindsighted zombies, consciousness is baggage that they have jettisoned, expand possibilities for the species
what about aesthetics
for humanity consciousness not landing on Earth
cruxifix glitch – vampires
downgrade humanity
reptilian ascendancy – also Power’s language
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Q&A
emotion and affect – importance to consciousness
subjectivity and the fragmented self
what about posthumanism and sentience
Earth: backwater, lucky for us, allowed us to survive
disability – ascendency for posthuman specialization
Suzan Jones – savage that we now don’t tolerate multipersonalities – in Blindsight, humanity accepts that – how to manage, utilize
scramblers – respond to stimuli, volition isn’t really addressed
Posted by Jason W Ellis 
