Diary (February 15, 2021)

Online diary of Karl Jones for Monay February 15, 2021.

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Diary

Weaponized medieval portative organs

• Comment @ Facebook

Bicameral mind

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind is the influential, controversial, and critically acclaimed 1976 book by the Princeton psychologist, psychohistorian and consciousness theorist Julian Jaynes (1920-1997). The book addresses the problematic nature of consciousness – "the ability to introspect" – which in Jaynes’s view must be distinguished from sensory awareness and other processes of cognition. Jaynes presents his proposed solution: that consciousness is a “learned behavior” based more on language and culture than on biology; this solution, in turn, points to the origin of consciousness in ancient human history rather than in metaphysical or evolutionary processes; furthermore, archaeological and historical evidence indicates that prior to the "learning" of consciousness, human mentality was what Jaynes called "the bicameral mind" – a mentality based on verbal hallucination.

The first edition was released in January 1977 in English. Two later editions, in 1982 and in 1990, were released by Jaynes with additions but without alterations. It was Jaynes's only book, and it is still in print, in several languages. In addition to numerous reviews and commentaries, there are several summaries of the book's material, for example, in the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences, in lectures and discussions published in Canadian Psychology, and in Art/World.

• The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind @ Wikipedia

See also

• The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Minefield

Gratitude of a Rescued Octopus

• Releasing a stranded octopus and it thanked me @ YouTube (8 August 2013)

English pride

“The English are vastly fond of great noises, and when they have had a glass or two of beer they will fire off cannons or ring bells for the pleasure of it.” So Paul Hentzner noted in his diary in Tudor times.

Hentzner was a keen-eyed German traveller, and he found the Londoners strange, but very well satisfied with themselves. “If they see a foreigner well made or exceptionally handsome they will say ‘what a pity he is not an Englishman!’ “

• The May Day riot of the apprentices @ Look and Learn blog

Fiction cross-reference

• Gnomon algorithm
• Gnomon Chronicles