Consciousness : A Mathematical Treatment of the Global Neuronal Workspace Model

This book makes formal, detailed application of "the informational turn in philosophy" to the global neuronal workspace (GNW) model of consciousness. It uses an extended statistical model of cognitive process to incorporate the effects of embedding physiological, social, and cultural contextual constraints which operate more slowly than the workspace itself, but severely limit the possible realms available to that workspace, and hence to consciousness itself. This is the first formal, comprehensive, and reasonably rigorous, mathematical treatment of the GNW and is the only one to include the effects of embedding contexts in a natural manner.