Werbos's "Optimization: A Foundation for Understanding Consciousness" (1997, not 1996) argues optimization is a useful tool for understanding mind — and is explicitly not his fullest statement on consciousness
The chapter's own thesis, in Werbos's words: optimization "– whatever its limitations – can be a useful tool in serious efforts to understand consciousness and the mind," because "neural network designs based on optimization… offer us a more complete understanding of the phenomenon of intelligence and mind, precise enough to be replicated on electronic computers, yet fully consistent with what we see in the brain." It runs eight sections from objective awareness through emotion and dream-states to a notably hedged close on "the soul" and quantum computing.
Two corrections the promotion carries, each checked and resolved rather than smoothed:
- Date: 1997, not 1996. Both Werbos's own annotated bibliography and co-editor Levine's faculty page date the host volume (Optimality in Biological and Artificial Networks?, Erlbaum) to 1997. No source gives 1996; the harvested "1996" is a citation error.
- Not his fullest statement on mind. The chapter says of itself: "Because of page limits, this chapter will simply explain what my views are, and cite other papers which explain the critical details." Werbos's own later survey essay (Mind.htm) omits this chapter entirely and points instead to a 2003 arXiv paper (q-bio/0311006) as the one engaging neuroscience/psychology "very directly." So this is a condensed overview, not the definitive treatment the harvested framing implied.
This is the mind/consciousness face of the same author who mathematized Freud into backpropagation (claim-werbos-backprop-from-freud-own-account, claim-werbos-1968-cybernetica-earliest-germ): across three decades Werbos consistently framed his optimization/ADP architecture as a theory of mind, not just a training algorithm. The soul/quantum pivot recurs in his later work. See backpropagation-gap. Entity candidate flagged not decided: P. J. Werbos (a Werbos hub is now cluster-justified but stays Cali's call).
Source
“This chapter describes how the concept of optimization – whatever its limitations – can be a useful tool in serious efforts to understand consciousness and the mind.”