The equation of consciousness.

Ev · 10-21-2011 11:19 PM

I'm bringing this out of my other post to see what you guys think:

If mental activity is the sum of all mental processes (MA) or neuronal activity
Then Awareness/attentiveness is the rate of change of MA = MA' derivative of MA
Then consciousness = rate of change of awareness/attentiveness or (MA)" the second derivative of MA with respect to some variable

The equation is then of the form: MA = Function of the mind + function of the body

I've also seen the equation MA = MA' + MA" + Fmind(t) + FBody(t)

I don't know if this is correct. to demonstrate the concept, I created this symbol earlier today while being unable to sleep due to the sleep phase disruption. It is the concept of trinity(observer, observable and the process of observation) mixed with the Ying-Yang, which in itself may be an oscillator. The 3 segments of the symbol are transparent and align to the 3 segments of the color wheel, spaced at 120 degrees apart. The arms themselves are at 120 degrees apart to begin with.

if mental activity is indeed dependent upon it's own rate of change, then it might be a self excited oscillator with a certain limit cycle to which it attempts to settle.

My intention is to let each segment of the symbol spin around the center point illustrating the part of the equation MA = MA' + MA" + Fmind(t) + FBody(t) If it keeps spinning through self-excitation, I may be on the right track. Otherwise, if it will become unstable or will die down, the I know that something is wrong.

Thoughts ?

**wana** · 10-21-2011 11:32 PM

if it is perpetual motion you want there then that is physically impossible
but can you use Texify - Online LaTeX equation writer to rewrite your equations

Ev · 10-22-2011 12:00 AM

That's a good point, which made me look at the equation from a different point trying to disprove your statement

This isn't quite perpetual motion. The source of change are the functions of the body and mind. If function of the body goes to 0, as in death, then the equation would take a certain form. At the moment of death, the change in the function of the body would be quite dramatic, producing a large change in awareness or consciousness. Hence the NDEs, OOBEs and such. If the function of the mind goes to zero, then the equation does not quite work, because consciousness and awareness would still be excited by the body. So there has to be some relationship between the functions of the body and mind.

This is self-excitation of a circuit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_der_Pol

**wana** · 10-22-2011 12:02 AM

man rewrite that equation with textifyer ppl will understand it better was it you who posted about mind awareness in beyond dreaming section earlier this year on ?

Ev · 10-22-2011 12:24 AM

Is this better?
$formdata=M(t)\+=+++M^\prime(t)++(M^\prime(t))^\prime++Fb(t)+++Fm(t)$

I recall posting about the states of mind awareness. Thanks for reminding me!

Ev · 10-22-2011 12:50 AM

This is somewhat similar to what I'm talking about:

**wana** · 10-22-2011 01:56 AM

define x A and µ
M(t)
fb(t)
fm(t)

Ev · 10-22-2011 06:19 AM

x is the signal's amplitude at time t, as scored by one of my detection algorithms. A is a driving function amplitude and u is a damping constant for the oscillator. larger u causes the oscillator to have longer period.
At the moment all of these functions are unknown. I'll have to do some engineering to try to estimate them. After that is done, I can correct my estimate from observations. What is known is that the person's awareness at any given night alternates between dreaming and almost complete loss of awareness in 90 minute cycles.

**Dreams4free** · 10-23-2011 06:58 PM

This can be easily thrown off by something like multi tasking though.

Unless you want to suggest that I am more conscious when I am on a tricycle juggling 4 sticks that are on fire while reciting all the numbers of pi as I can remember while chewing on a strawberry.

Just because we have more mentally processes going on at one instant does not mean we are more conscious or aware, that is a large generalization. In a way we almost enter a trance because we are so focused on what we lose some perception and awareness of what is going on outside our act.

I think that at any instance we are as fully conscious as we can be, it is just how we distribute our awareness or focus that we jump to conclusions and say that I am more conscious than before.