Richard Robertson

tom sarbeck wrote:
I’ve read of research saying plants communicate externalia by emitting aromas/odors.

An ability even among bacteria (but via the liquid medium they’re in).

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
Is consciousness a battle between your beliefs and perceptions?

The article didn’t mention this, but there’s a theory that a cause of hallucinations (e.g. in schizophrenia) is an inability in one or more of the brain’s “discrimination” circuits to determine whether a visual or auditory perception is originating from…[Read more]

_Robert_ wrote:
I am all for Obama’s Affordable Care Act

I apologize for mis-remembering your position on ACA.

I’ve had years of excellent care from the VA health system, both physical and mental. But I can’t speak for others. Just turning 65, I’m discovering the nightmare of Medicare, Rx coverage, extra cost of dental coverage, and the many ins…[Read more]

_Robert_ wrote:
Throughout history any attempts to radically alter the freedom of individuals to thrive and replace that freedom with an authoritarian distribution of wealth have proven to be a disaster for that society. In Venezuela, the land of  state run corporations, the starving people are eating the zoo animals.

I didn’t want to be…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
It would be neverending.

But professor, that’s known in philosophy as a “slippery slope” fallacy. 🙂

I think it’s useful to think in terms of what policy could be constructive for everyone, and only temporary, based on periodically evaluated community needs. “Reparations” policy looks more like punitive compensation, when the…[Read more]

_Robert_ wrote:
Keep it up Dems and we will have Trump again.

I agree. Because whites are still the boss-majority. They have been for a looooong time.

(Btw, I’m not in the mainstream nor do I watch mainstream news. I was unaware of this neo-SJW issue, just as I was too-long unaware of the violence and anti-free speech that was going on on…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
Beyond that, answering how we have it will probably not tell us if it’s necessary to be conscious (in the sense of having experiences of real goings on). As machines become more complex, can learn, and in some cases can even artfully resemble humans, it seems clear that behaving and being perceived as human does not require an e…

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LOL, _Robert_ I need to watch that movie again. Strangely, I don’t even remember that scene.

I forgot to consider your point about humans going hybrid. That would be a reasonable stepping stone, adding artificial aids like AI, a bit at a time, and could help us research and define our own consciousness before purposefully passing any aspects of…[Read more]

Thanks for those videos, Unseen. I learned the most from the TEDx one, which had a higher concentration of “interesting concepts per minute”. 🙂 Imo, most people here could skip the first 9 minutes or so of the second video.

Back on your main topic, I feel it’s important to emphasize again how we should better define type, spectrum, or depth of…[Read more]

_Robert_ wrote:
Do you think consciousness might amplify the will to survive?

That’s an awesome possibility. I missed that potential when I first skimmed this. Oh, but I’ll disagree with this:

To pretend that biological machines have anything intrinsic that could not be simulated perfectly (with the proper amount of pseudo-randomness) implies the…

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Asianne wrote:
I think the development of our pre-frontal cortex has a lot to do with it

Absolutely!

Unseen wrote:
A machine can’t have a need, but could certainly simulate a being with a need, given a sufficiently sophisticated program. Anyway, like I said, “experience” is a primitive term, much like “self.” These words will remain primitive because I can’t show you my self of my experiences. You simply analogize to your own.

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(I wrote a long post here on one of my favorite topics but decided it should not be a distraction from Unseen’s great topic here. I moved it to my Development of Consciousness topic in my Consciousness group. I’ve also linked from there to here.)

And yet I thought of something new to write/ask about here:

Is it also germane to ask about how…[Read more]

Christian “masters” don’t have as much prominence and power as they used to. Are you thinking of any Christians in the current crop of masters of manipulation of the masses, e.g. Steve Bannon?

What Jake says is makes enough sense to me, perhaps because “why” questions like this confuse me as to what is really being asked. As you point out, it invites a presumption of some invisible intent or force (like God) as a way to answer the why question. I’m still with you on your suggestion that consciousness might be an accident, but imo,…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
That we are conscious seems to be a gratuitous accident. Something we got but didn’t need.

Parsing this question further, consider what would be meant by “gratuitous”. Speaking again of gradation of an attribute rather than it just existing or not, could “gratuitous” apply to Neanderthal consciousness? Or just Sapiens after (sa…[Read more]