Modeling the process of thinking and thoughts!

We are using SysML (Systems Modeling Language) for doing Domain-Specific Modeling of Brain Systems, with the ultimate aim of modeling the Mind. What will be the steps?

1. Taking cues on the nature of thought, awareness, and self from my own experiences in silent sitting and meditation. And using them to get insights from meditation literature like Shiv Sutra, Yoga sutras of Patanjali, Buddhist and Zen literature, and many many others.
2. It will take into account multisensory integration, multiple cognitive models but especially focus on the cognitive neuroscience of thought. Important Brain Networks like Resting-State Networks, Default Mode Networks, Attention Networks, Sensory Networks will be considered.
3. The models will describe the thinking process and the role of awareness, and how it can modulate thinking. Broadly speaking, modern Western philosophy is based on thought, whereas meditative literature is based on ‘No Thought’ as the true essence.
4. Ideally, a model of Mind would be developed based on each principle, say one based on Patanjali, another based on Shiv Sutra, Tao te Ching, Heart Sutra, Dzogchen, Tantra, etc. It will be flexible and extensible enough to create different models of Mind following different architecture patterns. However, the underlying frameworks for Sensory Mechanisms, Interoception, Exteroception, and multiple cognitive functions like Language, Speech, movement, will essentially be the same in all circumstances. What will be different are the models of thought and thinking patterns.

This can be a fantastic amalgamation of meditation-based philosophies of the East and materialistic reductive philosophies of the West, with clearly formulated models that will be available open-source, with the possibility to vet architectures and suggest modifications from a diverse audience!

Ides of March, 2020

Barcelona

@We are living in interesting times. Coronavirus… is a reality.

The above post needs substantial editing.

A SysML model development will not be started before 2022. First, a mathematical model for many of the concepts described above needs to be described. Then, the Computational Correlates of Consciousness can be modeling by starting with modeling Sleep and its stages, following a Circadian and Ultradian cycle. A typical Sleep Architecture is shown below(Ref: A narrative review of interventions for improving Sleep and reducing circadian disruption in medical inpatients, Tan, et al, 2019). So, the objective will be to model the phenomenological states, like normal unconscious Sleep, lucid dreaming, and also being aware in NREM sleep like the phenomenology of “Yoga Nidra” and “jagrat-sushupti.”