Module Identifier PH19510  
Module Title CHAOS, COMMUNICATIONS AND CONSCIOUSNESS  
Academic Year 2001/2002  
Co-ordinator Dr Andrew Evans  
Semester Semester 2  
Other staff Professor Neville Greaves, Mr Martyn Jones  
Pre-Requisite None - module is highly suitable for non Physics students  
Co-Requisite None  
Mutually Exclusive None  
Course delivery Lecture   22 lectures  
Assessment Course work   /Tests   30%  
  Exam   2 Hours end of semester examination   70%  

Module objectives / Learning outcomes


After taking this module students should be able to:

Outline syllabus


Communication:


History of Telecommunications
Pre-electronic communications
Telegraphy and Telephony
Radio and digital signals
The Internet
Information Storage
Electronic Processing


Chaos:


Before Chaos
What is Chaos?
Examples of Chaos
Dynamics and Stability
Fractals


Consciousness:


What is consciousness?
Enabling technology for a scientific description of consciousness
Sceintific revolutions affecting human consciousness
Geography of the human brain
Psychology or information transfer?
Artificial intelligence
The future

Additional learning activities


Introductory skills for using the Internet and other electronic sources of information

Brief description


This module reviews the factors responsible for the recent global information explosion, funnelled through the world wide communications network, and includes an introduction to planning and the business environment. Against this backcloth the new science of Chaos is finding applications: from understanding the spread of disease, to modelling the dynamics of the Stock Market and replicating the topology of the snow flake. Communication and Chaos are the twin driving forces of intelligent life where they are finding a new foothold in meeting the challenge of putting consciousness into the arena. Much is known about the electricity in the mind but practically nothing about how this supports awareness and personal identity.

Reading Lists

Books
** Recommended Text
E. Schrodinger. What is Life: Mind and Matter. Cambridge ISBN 0521427088
H. Rheingold. Virtual Reality. Mandarin ISBN 0671778978
J. Bray. The Communications Miracle: the telecom poineers from Morse to the Information Superhighway. Plenum ISBN 0306450429
D. Peterson. Audio, Visual and Data Communication. McGraw-Hill ISBN 0077074270
S.J. Gould. Ever since Darwin. Penguin ISBN 0393308189
P. Teihard de Chardin. The Phenomenon of Man. Fontana/Collins
J. Gleick. Chaos. Abacus ISBN 043429554X
R. Penrose. The Emperor's new mind. Vintage ISBN 0198519737
D. Ruelle. Chance and Chaos. Penguin ISBN 0140171088