Individuation, integration, and the phenomenological subject : a reply to Tobias Schlicht

Tobias Schlicht argues that subjective character derives from the integration of mental states into a complex of representations of the organism and that therefore there is no need try to account for subjective character in terms of “reflexivity” or self-acquaintance, as I do. He further argues that the proper subject of consciousness is the whole organism and not the episode or stream of consciousness, as I maintain. He maintains that his account solves problems about the individuation and synchronic unity of conscious mental states that mine does not. While I agree that we need an account of the individuation of episodes of consciousness and an account of the synchronic and diachronic unities of consciousness (something I bracketed in my paper), I disagree that making the organism into the phenomenological subject of consciousness helps with these problems. However, I am willing to concede that the organism is the subject of consciousness in some non-phenomenological sense

Representationalisms, subjective character, and self-acquaintance

In this study I argue for the following claims: First, it’s best to think of subjective character as the self-acquaintance of each instance of consciousness—its acquaintance with itself. Second, this entails that all instances of consciousness have some intrinsic property in virtue of which they, and not other things, bear this acquaintance relation to themselves. And, third, this is still compatible with physicalism as long as we accept something like in re structural universals; consciousness is a real, multiply instantiable, natural universal or form, but it likely has a highly complex, articulated structure, and “lives” only in its instances. In order to make these cases, I give a characterization of subjective character that accounts for the intuition that phenomenal consciousness is relational in some sense (or involves a subject-object polarity), as well as the competing and Humean intuition that one of the supposed relata, the subject-relatum, is not phenomenologically accessible. By identifying the subject with the episode or stream of consciousness itself and maintaining that consciousness is immediately self-aware (“reflexively” aware), these competing intuitions can be reconciled. I also argue that it is a serious confusion to identify subjective character with one’s individuality or particularity. i argue that deeper reflection on the fact that consciousness has only incomplete self-knowledge will allow us to see that certain problems afflicting acquaintance theories, like the one i defend, are not the threats to certain forms of physicalism that they might seem to be. in particular, i briefly consider the grain problem and the apparent primitive simplicity of the acquaintance relation itself in this light.}

An organic record of terrestrial ecosystem collapse and recovery at the Triassic–Jurassic boundary in East Greenland

Terrestrial ecosystem collapse at the end of the Triassic Period coincided with a major mass extinction in the marine realm and has been linked to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide, global warming, and fire activity. Extractable hydrocarbons in samples from the fluvial Triassic–Jurassic boundary section at Astartekløft, East Greenland were analyzed to investigate the molecular and isotopic organic record of biotic and environmental change during this event. Carbon isotopic compositions of individual plant wax lipids show a >4‰ negative excursion coinciding with peak extinction and a further decrease of 2‰ coinciding with peak pCO2 as estimated from the stomatal indices of fossil Gingkoales. An increase of ∼30‰ in the hydrogen isotopic compositions of the same plant wax lipids coincides with ecosystem collapse, suggesting that the biotic crisis was accompanied by strong hydrologic change. Concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons related to combustion also increase together with abrupt plant diversity loss and peak with fossil charcoal abundance and maximum plant turnover, supporting the role of fire in terrestrial extinctions. Anomalously high concentrations of a monoaromatic diterpenoid related to gymnosperm resin derivatives (and similar to dehydroabietane) occur uniquely in samples from the boundary bed, indicating that environmental stress factors leading to peak plant extinction stimulated increased resin production, and that plant resin derivatives may be effective biomarkers of terrestrial ecosystem stress

The significance of 24-norcholestanes, 4-methylsteranes and dinosteranes in oils and source-rocks from East Sirte Basin (Libya)

The present paper involves a detailed evaluation of specific steroid biomarkers by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and GC-metastable reaction monitoring (MRM) analyses of several crude oils and source rocks from the East Sirte Basin. 24-Norcholestanes, dinosteranes, 4a-methyl-24-ethylcholestanes and triaromatic steroids have been identified in both source-rocks and crude oils of the East Sirte Basin. Diatoms, dinoflagellates (including those potentially associated with corals) and/or their direct ancestors are amongst the proposed sources of these biomarkers. These biomarker parameters have been used to establish a Mesozoic oil-source correlation of the East Sirte Basin. Hydropyrolysis of an extant coral extract revealed a similar distribution (although immature) of dinosteranes and 4a-methyl-24-ethylcholestanes also observed in the Sirte oils and source-rocks. This is consistent with the presence of dinoflagellates present during the deposition of the Mesozoic aged East Sirte Basin Formations.A good data correlation for the rock extracts revealed a similar distribution of 3,24-dimethyl triaromatic steroids, 3-methyl-24-ethylcholestanes, 4-methyl-24-ethylcholestanes and 2-methyl-24-ethylcholestanes observed in one of the oil families and associated source-rocks for the East Sirte Basin

The Projective Consciousness Model and Phenomenal Selfhood

We summarize our recently introduced Projective Consciousness Model (PCM) (Rudrauf et al., 2017) and relate it to outstanding conceptual issues in the theory of consciousness. The PCM combines a projective geometrical model of the perspectival phenomenological structure of the field of consciousness with a variational Free Energy minimization model of active inference, yielding an account of the cybernetic function of consciousness, viz., the modulation of the field’s cognitive and affective dynamics for the effective control of embodied agents. The geometrical and active inference components are linked via the concept of projective transformation, which is crucial to understanding how conscious organisms integrate perception, emotion, memory, reasoning, and perspectival imagination in order to control behavior, enhance resilience, and optimize preference satisfaction. The PCM makes substantive empirical predictions and fits well into a (neuro)computationalist framework. It also helps us to account for aspects of subjective character that are sometimes ignored or conflated: pre-reflective self-consciousness, the first-person point of view, the sense of minenness or ownership, and social self-consciousness. We argue that the PCM, though still in development, offers us the most complete theory to date of what Thomas Metzinger has called “phenomenal selfhood.

The science process for selecting the landing site for the 2020 Mars rover

The process of identifying the landing site for NASA's Mars 2020 rover began in 2013 by defining threshold mission science criteria related to seeking signs of ancient habitable conditions, searching for biosignatures of past microbial life, assembling a returnable cache of samples for possible future return to Earth, and collecting data for planning eventual human missions to the surface of Mars. Mission engineering constraints on elevation and latitude were used to identify candidate landing sites that addressed the scientific objectives of the mission. However, for the first time these constraints did not have a major influence on the viability of candidate sites and, with the new entry, descent, and landing capabilities included in the baseline mission, the vast majority of sites were evaluated and down-selected on the basis of science merit. More than 30 candidate sites with likely acceptable surface and atmospheric conditions were considered at a series of open workshops in the years leading up to the launch. During that period, iteration between engineering constraints and the evolving relative science potential of candidate sites led to the identification of three final candidate sites: Jezero crater (18.4386°N, 77.5031°E), northeast (NE) Syrtis (17.8899°N,77.1599°E) and Columbia Hills (14.5478°S, 175.6255°E). The final landing site will be selected by NASA's Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. This paper serves as a record of landing site selection activities related primarily to science, an inventory of the number and variety of sites proposed, and a summary of the science potential of the highest-ranking sites

The science process for selecting the landing site for the 2020 Mars rover

The process of identifying the landing site for NASA's Mars 2020 rover began in 2013 by defining threshold mission science criteria related to seeking signs of ancient habitable conditions, searching for biosignatures of past microbial life, assembling a returnable cache of samples for possible future return to Earth, and collecting data for planning eventual human missions to the surface of Mars. Mission engineering constraints on elevation and latitude were used to identify candidate landing sites that addressed the scientific objectives of the mission. However, for the first time these constraints did not have a major influence on the viability of candidate sites and, with the new entry, descent, and landing capabilities included in the baseline mission, the vast majority of sites were evaluated and down-selected on the basis of science merit. More than 30 candidate sites with likely acceptable surface and atmospheric conditions were considered at a series of open workshops in the years leading up to the launch. During that period, iteration between engineering constraints and the evolving relative science potential of candidate sites led to the identification of three final candidate sites: Jezero crater (18.4386°N, 77.5031°E), northeast (NE) Syrtis (17.8899°N,77.1599°E) and Columbia Hills (14.5478°S, 175.6255°E). The final landing site will be selected by NASA's Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. This paper serves as a record of landing site selection activities related primarily to science, an inventory of the number and variety of sites proposed, and a summary of the science potential of the highest-ranking sites

Field and laboratory validation of remote rover operations Science Team findings: The CanMars Mars Sample Return analogue mission

The CanMars Mars Sample Return Analogue Deployment (MSRAD) was a closely simulated, end-to-end Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission scenario, with instrumentation, goals, and constraints modeled on the upcoming NASA Mars 2020 rover mission; this paper reports on the post-mission validation of the exercise. The exercise utilized the CSA Mars Exploration Science Rover (MESR) rover, deployed to Utah, USA, at a Mars-analogue field site. The principal features of the field site located near Green River, Utah are Late Jurassic inverted, fluvial paleochannels, analogous to features on Mars in sites being considered for the ESA ExoMars rover mission and present within the chosen landing site for the Mars 2020 rover mission. The in-simulation (“in-sim”) mission operations team worked remotely from The University of Western Ontario, Canada. A suite of MESR-integrated and hand-held spectrometers was selected to mimic those of the Mars 2020 payload, and a Utah-based, on-site team was tasked with field operations to carry out the data collection and sampling as commanded by the in-sim team. As a validation of the in-sim mission science findings, the field team performed an independent geological assessment. This paper documents the field team's on-site geological assessment and subsequent laboratory and analytical results, then offers a comparison of mission (in-sim) and post-mission (laboratory) science results. The laboratory-based findings were largely consistent with the in-sim rover-derived data and geological interpretations, though some notable exceptions highlight the inherent difficulties in remote science. In some cases, available data was insufficient for lithologic identification given the absence of other important contextual information (e.g., textural information). This study suggests that the in-sim instruments were largely adequate for the Science Team to characterize samples; however, rover-based field work is necessarily hampered by mobility and time constraints with an obvious effect on efficiency but also precision, and to some extent, accuracy of the findings. The data show a dearth of preserved total organic carbon (TOC) – used as a proxy for ancient biosignature preservation potential – in the fluvial-lacustrine system of this field site, suggesting serious consideration with respect to the capabilities and opportunities for addressing the Mars exploration goals. We therefore suggest a thorough characterization of terrestrial sites analogous to those of Mars rover landing sites, and in-depth field studies like CanMars as important, pre-mission strategic exercises