> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of Richard Baker > Sent: Saturday, August 12, 2006 12:19 PM > To: Killer Bs Discussion > Subject: Re: Question for Charlie > > Dan said: > > > When people first had the potential for gaining reflective self- > > awareness > > during their lifetime. > > But is that necessarily a sharp transition? It seems naively to me > that it might be possible to have various different resolutions of > internal models of oneself, rather than it being something that > switches on like a light in one's head. And this being the case, it > might be that the transition is smeared out over tens of thousands of > generations or longer.
It might, but we really don't know...and, pretty much by definition, there is no empirical evidence one way or another. In a real sense, it's like trying to obtain the total particle production cross section by having a detector which works over only a small solid angle, and detectors only certain types of particles. Or, trying to determine on what fraction of theoretically habitable planets intelligent life develops on, given one known case. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
