edited Nov.19
Since I’d love to discuss Rebers thoughts, I get the feeling I need to introduce him and his ideas to people. Hope is a survival strategy in hopeless times,
Here’s a better outline of key points.
I’ve continued working on the project and think it’s time to replace these Reber quotes with my introduction. Reber’s transcript is available here.
The “Cellular Basis of Consciousness” proposal - A Student’s Introduction to Dr. Arthur Reber’s CBC
Recently I finished listening to Nick Lane’s “Transformer,” with its significant molecular and mitochondrial insights, and its superb epilogue titled “Self.” Then, someone at medium.com suggested Arthur Reber, and I was amazed by Dr. Reber’s 2018 presentation at Institut des sciences cognitives – UQAM. It seemed to me to dovetail with Professor Lane’s exposition and it feels to me like I’ve found the last major missing piece of the puzzle that I’ve been putting together for myself, and to share.
An Introduction to Dr Reber’s thoughts:
The “Cellular Basis of Consciousness (CBC)”
Reber’s 2018, Institut des sciences cognitives - UQAM presentation.
Where, Nick Lane took me down into our physiology and beyond—into chemistry, then into physics, and the Kreb’s cycle—before bringing it around to mitochondria and some mind-blowing new insights. Finishing with an elegant, most informed deconstruction of the so-called Hard Problem.
Arthur Reber took me back into deep time, origins, and to first functional cells.
Why did only one type of genetic structure succeed, out of what must have been bazillions of reactions over three billion years? Reber’s “Cellular Basis of Consciousness (CBC)” points the way to where to look for answers. I find it is consilient with the treasure trove of scientific information I’ve already accumulated. It’s harmonious with my perceptions as a lifelong deep time Evolution enthusiast. Then Reber finished with an impassioned, spot-on deconstruction, and a resolution, to Philosophy’s misguided meta-physical “Hard Problem”—What’s not to love, I ask?
How we ask our questions often says more about our own expectations, than about the topic.
I want to state that I believe Arthur Reber’s (who died a couple months ago) presentation deserves to be in the public domain and receive a hell of a lot more exposure than it has received!
Sadly, I can’t ask Dr. Reber for his permission, and I was so looking forward to a fun email exchange. I’m actually struck with a sense of loss and sadness by the news. I believe he would have approved of me and my intentions—and supported me in the following personal effort—now I see this as my memorial to Arthur Reber and his deep insights.
I’ve gone through his UQAM talk posted on YouTube and have transcribed extensive portions of it. They cover key highlights of the concept he was striving to share with others - and kept my commentary to a bare minimum and clearly marked.
Arthur Reber deserves to have serious students process what he had to say. Then to discuss it with each other. That is if you don’t want to get gobbled up by faith-based disconnect from reality, or philosophical worm holes. We need to come up with a better, realistic bottom up evolutionary-biological appreciation for who we are.
After that, unless you are changing minds, we are losing.
Getting to know the work of Dr. Reber feels like an arrival after a life long personal educational journey that got supercharged by David Attenborough’s 1979, “Life On Earth” extravaganza, where he used living creatures to tell the story of Evolution of Life on Earth. That led me to endless reading and listening, highlighted by the likes of Hazen, Lane, Sloan-Wilson, Solms, Damasio, Sapolsky , Levin, Turin, Reber, among many others. Sure the devil is in the details and there’s always more to learn and deeper understanding to achieve, but the map is complete. I challenge anyone to point out the gaps evidence and logic.
(not talking about details & minuscia, this is about the overarching layout of what we are looking at when trying to discover our reality bound ‘self’).
It all starts with an intellectual foundation, such as, appreciating the Human Mind ~ Physical Reality divide, then we work out from there.