Date: 1999

"In fact, the same empirical evidence presented for the assumption that the mind functions like a digital computer tends, when considered without making this assumption, to show that the assumption is empirically untenable."

— Dreyfus, Hubert L. (b. 1929)

Date: 1999

"In the absence of any empirical or a priori argument that such a formalism for processing physical inputs does or must exist, and given the empirical evidence that the brain functions like an analogue computer, there is no reason to suppose and every reason to doubt that the processing of...

— Dreyfus, Hubert L. (b. 1929)

Date: 1999

"As the brain gets more complex in the womb, then, like a dimmer switch, consciousness gradually grows and burgeons until, of course, in adulthood it reaches its particular pinnacles or depths."

— Greenfield, Susan (b. 1950)

Date: 1999

"On its own this trigger, as we can see from the earlier definition, is not going to generate consciousness. Imagine a candyfloss machine with a stick in the centre that then gathers more and more candyfloss as time goes on. Think of the epicentre as the stick in the centre, the burgeoning candy...

— Greenfield, Susan (b. 1950)

Date: 1999

"But fiction is not empirical truth. It is simulation that runs on minds of readers just as computer simulations run on computers."

— Oatley, Keith

Date: 1999

"Caution, to prevent electric shock / Do not remove cover / No user-serviceable parts inside / Refer servicing to qualified / Service personnel" // Let this be the epitaph for my heart

— Stephin Merritt (b. February 9, 1965)

Date: June 19, 2000

"The record she'd given me was playing in my mind, and I kept trying to shut it off."

— Packer, ZZ (b. 1973)

Date: 2000

"This lonely organ, which has appeared to be imprisoned in the skull, tormenting intellectuals throughout history,' said Jean-Paul merrily, 'may after all be a transceiver, tuning into various types of extraphysical mind, and contributing to them with its own broadcasts.'"

— Edward St. Aubyn (b. 1960)