On Apr 2, 11:21 pm, Stathis Papaioannou <stath...@gmail.com> wrote: > > >> Dick could have the same doubts about any medical treatment short of > >> total brain replacement. Perhaps taking perindopril for hypertension > >> turns people into zombies. > > > The "same" doubts? Really? > > If philosophical zombies are possible then the behavioural test for > the presence of consciousness is invalid.
Behavioral tests for the presence of consciousness are invalid even if philosophical zombies aren't possible. I cannot tell the difference between a live video feed of a person and a recorded video of them. > Any physical change to your > body could destroy your soul and neither you nor anyone else would > know. In theory it could, but in practice that does not seem to be the case. We feel strongly that our impressions of conscious beings reflect the presence of consciousness such that we have no reason to doubt that assumption unless we might be fooled by a simulation designed expressly to fool our perception. That would be a puppet, not a zombie. > It might seem reasonable to assume that zombification is more > likely with a more extreme brain change but if there is an immaterial > soul you can't really say this, and maybe eating a ham sandwich is > just as bad as brain replacement. major antipsychotics can push a person pretty close to being a zombie. Shock, trauma, sleepwalking...lots of ways that bodies can perform many human functions without having fully human awareness. Craig -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
