Dreams, Jokes, and Songs: How Brains Build Consciousness

 Paul Thagard’s 2025 book, "Dreams, Jokes, and Songs: How Brains Build Consciousness," provides a "materialist" explanation for how our subjective experiences arise from biological processes.

It moves away from the idea that consciousness is a mysterious "spirit" and instead argues that it is an emergent property—much like how "liquid water" is an emergent property that only exists when you bind hydrogen and oxygen together.

---

1. The Core Framework: The NBC Theory

Thagard argues that consciousness is built by four specific brain mechanisms working in a recursive loop. He calls this the NBC Theory:

• Neural Representation: Groups of neurons fire in specific patterns to "stand in" for things in the world (like the color of a Chicago Bears jersey) or internal feelings (like hunger).

• Binding: The brain "zips" these separate representations together. For example, it binds the "smell of coffee," the "heat of the mug," and the "bitter taste" into a single, unified conscious moment.

• Coherence: The brain resolves conflicts to make sense of the world. It filters out "noise" to ensure your experience feels logical and consistent.

• Competition: At any given moment, millions of signals are hitting your brain. These signals "compete" for attention. The ones that win become your conscious awareness, while the losers remain unconscious.

2. Applications: Dreams, Jokes, and Songs

Thagard uses these four mechanisms to explain specific human experiences:

• Dreams: He views dreams as the brain’s attempt to "make sense" (Coherence) of random neural firing that happens during memory consolidation while you sleep.

• Jokes: Humor arises from a sudden "shift" in coherence. When a punchline flips your understanding of a situation, the "Competition" mechanism shifts your attention, creating the conscious experience of amusement.

• Music: Music is a powerful "Binder" of emotion and mathematical pattern. It engages the brain's reward systems by creating and then satisfying expectations of rhythm and melody.

3. On Artificial Intelligence & Machines

Given your interest in Information and Technology, this is perhaps the most relevant part of his summary:

• The AI Verdict: Thagard argues that while current Generative AI (like ChatGPT) is highly intelligent, it is likely not conscious.

• The Missing Piece: AI lacks the specific "Binding" and "Coherence" mechanisms that are tied to biological needs (like survival, hunger, and reproduction).

• Neuromorphic Computers: He suggests that "neuromorphic" computers—those designed to physically mimic the energy consumption and parallel architecture of a brain—are the only machines that have a real shot at becoming conscious in the future.

4. On Time & Animals

• Time Consciousness: He proposes that our sense of "now" is a construction of these mechanisms, allowing us to perceive a continuous flow instead of discrete "snapshots."

• Animal Consciousness: Using the NBC criteria, he argues that mammals and birds are definitely conscious, and even simpler creatures like crabs or bees likely have a "lower rung" of consciousness. However, he rules out plants and rocks because they lack the necessary "Binding" and "Competition" hardware.

---

Summary of the "Big Idea"

Thagard’s ultimate goal is to solve the "Hard Problem" of consciousness by showing that "Qualia" (the feeling of being you) is just what happens when these four brain mechanisms interact at a high enough level of complexity.