by Tor Norretranders, read in 2001

Page Lines* Comments
ix 7-8 "The" fundamental question
13 9-11 Unfounded generalization of 2nd law of thermodynamics
14 5-7 Fire is Plasma?? I don't think so.
15 25-26 False implication that electric current has less entropy because of "order".
17 3-5 Giving a name: "equalization" doesn't explain increasing entropy
17 21-22 He ignores life as an "experience from everyday life"
24 22-24 Newton's Theology
24 32-33 Szilard made Maxwell's demon mortal
25 15-17 Szilard wrong: wisdom costs; not knowledge
34 5-8 How is a shuffled deck any different from an ordered deck?
36 1-6 Entropy sounds like my "downward information".
57 10-13 Church-Turing Thesis: "You can compute anything that has already been computed"
58 27- Kolmogorov and Greg Chaitin (Tor consistently mis-spells 'Kolmogorov')
59 35-39 Goofy definition of random numbers
60 7-39 B.S.
62 2-8 Order requires subjectivity
62 21-25 Wrong! Goedel's Theorem applies only if the system includes arithmetic
69 17 "It from bit" - John Wheeler
78 4-12 Definition of 'meaning'
78 20-21 My "Transfer of Omniscience"?
80 21-23 Notion of logical depth. It implies that the state of sender & receiver are primary
112 7-27 Music communication
120 1-2 Blood flow in brain - like current flow in cell phone
125 13-15 Two non sequiturs about consciousness
126 12-16 He mistakes perception for consciousness
137 38-39 He correlates consciousness with "what goes out" of a person
138 23-24 A character contains 2 bits??
139 30-32 Only process 16 bits/sec.
142 7-9 Awareness & automatic function: Which "summons" which??
177 5-20 James: The mind as sculptor
177 28-29 Kornhuber: The essence of consciousness - choice
181 27-34 Necker cube: I can do all the things he says I can't
181-5 Optical illusions
195 26-39 Nagel - the problem of other minds
206 9-17 Crick on the significance of consciousness
207 12-39 Summary - dubious
208 12-13 Has exformation "actually" been discarded? If so, how is it "excited"?
208 26-27 True. But conscious experience contains vast amounts of info from somewhere else. Consider looking at the night sky.
208 29 Maybe there is another "entry"??
216 18-20 I disagree that we experience the decision to act immediately prior
216 31-34 Myriad prior contributing decisions lead up to each single decision event
219 29-31 Yes, but, the prior contributing decisions were carried out long before. e.g. decision to participate in experiment, follow instructions, etc.
220 14-15 But our consciousness 'sets up' the "decision"
221 1-2 Instead of defining 'capacity' as a bit rate, define it as scope; consider the capacity of being conscious of the night sky! billions of cubic light years!
221 4 "Feeling the urge to act" is not the same as deciding to act
221 28-31 Consciousness is aware of "immediate...decisions", but is not the cause of them. The cause is the 'setup' & the laws of physics. Consciousness causes the 'setup' probably via quantum hidden variables.
221 24-39 Strawman argument. Consciousness is not a product...
222 8-12 A. Consciousness is "in charge" same as with a car or cell phone
222 13 Yes, definitely: there are problems in his notion of consciousness!
222 23-39 Huh??!
223 3-8 Yes.
223 9-12 No. It explains the readiness potential of a consequence of thought
223 29-33 Reality may be "hair-raisingly complicated"
224 1-3 Most of what goes on in a car is unconscious
239 10-14 Penrose: Consciousness may not obey rules of time
243 17-39 Consciousness as veto
244 7-9 To the contrary: we control our urges but not our actions
244 30-33 The Golden Rule is questioned
245 35-36 Jewish vs. Christian morality
247 22-27 If Jaynes was right, Jesus' timing for conscious morality was proper
286 27-36 Peculiarities of consciousness - all debatable
288 18-19 We can be conscious of the delay (rattlesnake or thumb tack). We typically just don't pay attention. It tells us that if we are interested.
288 23-29 This seems to prove that the information is not discarded!
288 36-39 This "image we have" is far more profound than mere perception
289 14-17 The "illusion" is not the "core" but merely the perception of consciousness
290 8 No! Consciousness is experienced as depth; the world is perceived as surface
292 26-28 Dawkins' condition may be necessary but it is not sufficient
293 5-6 Who or what is the "we" that experiences???
297-8 8- Story of guy receiving sight for 1st time late in life
326 32-36 Feynman: Mind? Last week's potatoes?
410 5-14 Summary of errors. Every statement in these 3 paragraphs is wrong.
410 35-36 Who or what is "the person who carries consciousness around"??
413 38-39 The "sublime" is too high on Maslow's list to be sought by "almost everybody"
417 13-15 I think Tor completely mis-interprets and misunderstands Maxwell

* Count blank lines but not chapter titles. Make a skinny vertical strip of paper numbered 1 through 39 corresponding to the line layout. That way, you can just lay the strip on the page and read off the line numbers. On first pages of chapters, align the 1 with the first line of text.