apt Lucky Day book find
Dipped into the Marina branch of the SFPL the other day, checked out the "Lucky Day" shelf, and saw that Michael Pollan's new book — A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness — was on it. Grabbed it, and now have 3 weeks to read the thing (as an LD book, it's non-renewable).
This passage in the Introduction was quite... suggestive.
"According to global workspace theory, the information produced by each of these various modules competes for the attention of the brain's owner in a quasi-Darwinian process, with the most urgent or useful information rising to the top and finding its way into the 'global workspace.' The theory asks us to imagine the mind as a theater, mostly dark except for the spotlit stage — that's the workspace, washed in the light of attention. Information that makes it 'onstage' gets 'broadcast' to the entire brain, at which point it pops into consciousness. The value of this information becoming conscious is that it can be used to guide behavior more flexibly than automatic processing would. Consciousness creates a space for decision-making."
And obviously it struck me that this is what I've been doing for the past year now, with the Polyphonic Cognitive Ensemble and my 'onstage/offstage' conceit of audience/audient participation and observation.
So on-the-nose as to be almost unbelievable, yes? ::chuckle::