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: 2001

"How romantic to think the mind a machine reliable enough to transform the same causes over and over again into the same effects. When even toasters fail!"

— Richardson, James (b. 1950)

Date: 2002

"Meaning derives from the linkages among these representations with others spread throughout the cortical system in a vast associational network, similar to a dictionary or a relational database."

— Crick, Francis (1916-2004) and Christof Koch (b. 1956)

Date: 2003

"Within the circuits of my mind, the moments in Empire Strikes Back I most adore are whenever Yoda gives his little Vince Lombardi speeches, often explaining that --in life--there is no inherent value to effort"

— Klosterman, Chuck (b. 1972)

Date: 2005

"Many other examples can easily be found since this version of social theory has become the default position of our mental software that takes into consideration the following."

— Latour, Bruno (b. 1947)

Date: 2005

"They [the vehicles that transport individuality, subjectivity, personhood, and interiority] could be called 'subjectifiers', 'personnalizers', or 'individualisers', but I prefer the more neutral term of 'plug-ins', borrowing this marvelous metaphor from our new life on the Web."

— Latour, Bruno (b. 1947)

Date: 2006

"In this way something like a database is created that stores our preferences and dislikes."

— Klein, Stefan (b. 1965)

Date: 2006

"When people looked for metaphors, they saw the mind as the driver of a car, or as a program running on a computer."

— Haidt, Jonathan

Date: 2006

"Whichever end of that range you favor, language, reasoning, and conscious planning arrived in the most recent eye-blink of evolution. They are like new software, Rider version 1.0."

— Haidt, Jonathan