Designs on consciousness: literature and predictive processing.
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences January 29, 2024 Karin Kukkonen 6 citations
Predictive processing describes the brain as an engine of probabilistic hierarchical inference. This article extends that framework to consciousness by drawing on literary engagement, showing how literature can illuminate qualia, counterfactual depth in conscious experience, and sense of self. The author proposes that literature functions as a designer environment for exploring and rethinking consciousness, not merely a source of illustrative examples, and suggests theoretical questions for experimental designs using literature as a source of hypotheses.