jakelafort

Unseen, i reject your WHY question as irrelevant and meaningless since it is equally applicable and unanswerable when applied to any and all natural phenomena. Your reaction to consciousness is aesthetic. Instead of consciousness it  might have been echo location, playing dead, venom, flying, ritualized mating dances, mimicry etc. The…[Read more]

Unseen are you questioning whether we humans are conscious?

I am taking it for granted. And since we know we share so many genes and physiology and behavior with other animals it would be a surprise if we were the only conscious animal.

Is that arguing from analogy? I suppose it is. I also think it is highly probative of the probabilities.…[Read more]

Unseen, we cant extrapolate from the organic to inorganic.

I am just observing the natural world. Whenever we see intelligent animals;  human animals, primates, birds etc we see variation in personality and idiosyncratic behavior. My assumption is that such animals are all conscious. In the same way when i was a kid and heard how humans are…[Read more]

Unseen and Pope, very little doubt the vid of the Octo-whiz is a spoof.

Unseen, i agree that without experience consciousness is absent.  I have read and seen enough on octopuses to be pretty sure they are uncanny problem solvers. Solving problems indicates intelligence. Intelligence is a sign of consciousness. There i said it!

We ought to be…[Read more]

I think there is a basic question whether organically based life on our pale blue dot is capable of consciousness without a central nervous system.

I think octopus are conscious. Octopuses solve complex problems. There are so many documented examples of their problem solving that it is a leap to assume that they are unaware and lacking in the…[Read more]

At some point an attorney who is defending a serial rapist/murderer may admit the allegations of prosecutor and offer defense of no free will/anatomy is destiny psychopathy victim to negate mens rea.

We have had evolution on trial and not just in the famous Scopes trial.

Imagine expert witnesses in neuroscience, physics, and philosophy? How…[Read more]

Unseen, your why question is nonsensical. It is premature.  Your intransigence is frustrating.

Consciousness is biological. Its depth and degree are dependent on the architecture of the brain. It is not surprising that the how of consciousness is not understood. The complexity of the brain is mind boggling.

Unless and until the how of…[Read more]

No, i don’t know or can’t be certain of the rich internal subjective world of others. But it is a safer wager than the wager you are making about consciousness being an unnecessary add-on.  I am a human. I have it. Other humans are closely related and it is unlikely that i am unique. We observe sameness, consanguinity and connection among our…[Read more]

Unseen, WHY and not HOW questions are perhaps of greatest interest to us but those Whys are applicable and equally compelling as to the existence of the universe, the genesis of life, relativity and a host of mysteries as we humans linger in the cave and continue to see shadows on the wall.  We won’t answer WHYs, only HOWs.

Since we have become…[Read more]

Unseen i poisoned the well in my penultimate scribbles not in the words you pasted. Here I simply explained my bias against theists as thinkers. Yes, there are theists who compartmentalize in some instances although not in others.

As to his conception of god i lay the responsibility on Chalmers as he is a philosopher and ought not use the code…[Read more]

Unseen, theism is relevant in that it goes to the intellectual integrity of the thinker. And for those who maintain belief but seek truth they have to reconcile their irrational, tendentious and unscientific religious stance with whatever topic in the natural world. I recall recently having listened/read Peterson who butchers the shit out of…[Read more]

Unseen, that guy you linked is a believer. God this…god that…says he. Barf!

You say to me that my faith in Darwin is precious. Do you have faith in god? Is that the source of consciousness? Has she imbued her special creation with a rich inner world?

The speaker asserts that neuroscience will never explain consciousness to which i say bull…[Read more]

Thanks for that link Reg.

It makes sense to me that with neural complexity integration is required which enhances or creates our inner experience.

Evolution is why.

Already said so. You avoided me. Are you conscious of having done so?

Being conscious confers a survival benefit (adaptations or mutations which confer a survival benefit tend to be passed on because those organisms tend to reproduce more often than those lacking such-sorry to be so basic) which over the eons developed in fits…[Read more]

In a perfect simulation the feelings of the progenitor might be duplicated in the simulation so that the feelings of progenitor and simulation are indistinguishable.

But again i dont see how you can view consciousness as a gratuitous add on when it makes sense in context of evolution.

Plants lack a central nervous system. The mechanism or driver of consciousness is a necessary antecedent.

Whether an entity or organism can simulate a human or higher order creature without the human or higher order creature creating the simulator is something i very much doubt.

Shoot it in the nuts and it says, “fuck me hard you mutha fucker”…[Read more]

Unseen, I think that is a non sequitur.

You are comparing organic life that arose 4 plus billion years ago and perhaps only in the last several hundred million years did it attain consciouness with artificial intelligence that arose 80 years ago and advances without evolving in the way organic life does.  The latter does not suggest…[Read more]

Consciousness evolved because it confers survival benefits. No doubt it did not arise at once but gradually. Consciousness is beneficial in hunting prey and evading predators. It is beneficial in finding and building shelters etc

The advent of AI is so recent that it is unfair to presume there is something unique about animals on earth. The…[Read more]

Spiritual is one of those ambiguous/amorphous words that require definition before a meaningful conversation will ensue. However if spiritual is tantamount to religious then it is a throwaway.

On other hand if it means something like inspiring/sensing wonder, awe, abstruse, recondite, beyond our ken then religion is a hindrance or obstacle…[Read more]