Re: Why Humans are Conscious

on Wed, 14 Feb 2007 13:49:11 -0500 (EST), dkomo <dkomo871@xxxxxxxxxxx> sez:
Tim Tyler wrote:

claudiusdenk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> On Feb 6, 10:51 am, Guy A Hoelzer <hoel...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>> claudiusd...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 2/4/07 12:19 PM:
>>> On Feb 3, 12:00 am, dkomo <dkomo...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>> Tim Tyler wrote:
>>>>> claudiusd...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

>>>>>> Sure. To some degree. But human consciousness is orders of
magnitude
>>>>>> higher than that of any other species, most notably our closest
>>>>>> relatives, chimps.
>>>>> You have access to a consciousnessometer?
>>>>> Are you sure it's calibrated right?
>>>>> Humans seem to be extremely similar to chimps in this
>>>>> respect - as far as I can see.
>>>> Really? Can chimps work calculus problems too? And Sudoku puzzles?
>>>> [moderator's note: How would we know? -HAG]
>>> How is it not obvious?
>>
>> If you raised a human with the exact same environment
>> and set of experiences as a chimp, do you think we
>> could observe their ability to do calculus or Sudoku?
>
> Irrelevant.
>
>> I think the answer to the question above is not so obvious.
>
> The question that matters is what would happen if a chimps
> was raised in a human family.

Most likely the chimp would get screwed up - much like
any individual ripped from its natural parents and
adopted by members of a different species would be.

Note that ability at calculus and Sudoku doesn't seem to
have much to do with what it says on:

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=consciousness
--

Consciousness = mind = what the brain does when it is running.

Ability at calculus and Sudoku puzzles is an observable. It's what the
human brain does, or can do. Chimps can't, so they have less
consciousness.

What, are you another McGinn sock puppet?

Consciousness is not thinking, consciousness is not doing,
consciousness is not understanding the world. Consciousness
is being a subjective observer of experience. Period.
Now, we can talk about the various degrees of all those
other things, no problem. Just don't call them consciousness.

--
==========================================================================
vincent@triumf[munge].ca Pete Vincent
Disclaimer: all I know I learned from reading Usenet.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Evolutionary question concerning God.
    ... The nature of your experiences is ... The organism will follow the laws of physics by analysing the situation ... that is presented in his/her consciousness and taking ... I assume you mean the brain is structured in such a way ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Implausibility that we can be explained by evolution
    ... The reason being is that you admit, ... robot if it were to be consciously experiencing, ... experiencing consciousness is myself. ... certainty that you or anyone else in this thread has such experiences. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Implausibility that we can be explained by evolution
    ... subjective conscious experiences don't influence behaviour. ... configuration, which drove a robot. ... the single node in the lab was not influenced by consciousness, ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Evolutionary question concerning God.
    ... The nature of your experiences is ... The organism will follow the laws of physics by analysing the situation ... that is presented in his/her consciousness and taking ... I assume you mean the brain is structured in such a way ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Materialist Evolutionists
    ... interactions would be different if the robot was not experiencing. ... and had nodal interactions that correlated with conscious experiences, ... consciousness is part of those interactions. ...
    (talk.origins)