Newsgroups: sci.physics,sci.skeptic,alt.consciousness,sci.psychology,comp.ai.philosophy,sci.bio,sci.philosophy.meta,rec.arts.books,rec.arts.sf.science
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!MathWorks.Com!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!usc!news.service.uci.edu!unogate!stgprao
From: stgprao@st.unocal.COM (Richard Ottolini)
Subject: Re: Roger Penrose's New Book (in HTML) 1.0
Message-ID: <CxtoEK.F3H@unocal.com>
Sender: news@unocal.com (Unocal USENET News)
Organization: Unocal Corporation
References: <37s8hp$mch@ixnews1.ix.netcom.com>
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 15:01:32 GMT
Lines: 17
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu sci.physics:96673 sci.skeptic:91864 sci.psychology:28086 comp.ai.philosophy:21063 sci.bio:22394 sci.philosophy.meta:14118

I finally got around to reading substantial parts of it- main chapters 1,4,7,8
(skipping the digressions on physics).

One serious gap is almost no mention of how the results learned from cognitive
psychology fit in.  CP shows the brain/mind is peppered with artifacts due to
biology and evolution affecting mind function. For example, conscious awareness
is related to the subparts of sensory awareness and short-term memory.
Penrose examines none of this material.

Second, the book reads like a New Age book- flittering from topic to topic,
some Penrose is intimately familar with like the math and physics, and others
he treats very superficially and mis-applies. (In a true New Age book the
authors know nothing about any of the topics they discuss and generalize
endlessly.)

I welcome Penrose's thoughtful specuatations about the relationship of
physics and consciousness, but don't agree with much of it.
