2015-02-04 7:43 GMT+01:00 meekerdb <meeke...@verizon.net>: > On 2/3/2015 9:12 PM, Jason Resch wrote: > > Well the question "is something conscious?" is binary, like "is >> something alive?". However there is a great spectrum of possible living >> entities, and a massive gulf that separates the simplest life forms from >> the most complex life forms. I think the same is true of consciousness. The >> mars rover might be conscious, but its consciousness might be as simple as >> a bacterium's biology is compared to a human's. >> >> >> That seems inconsistent with being "binary", like "being alive". First, >> being alive isn't "binary". Are viruses alive? Prions? Cigarettes? >> > > Any of those things are either alive or they aren't (according to some > theory of liveness). > > > So you simply define "alive" to be all or nothing by invoking some "theory > of liveness" - however arbitrarily you have to draw the line. Not a very > defensible position. > > But wherever is the line... there is a line between dead or alive, if there wasn't, then everything is alive... emptying the alive concept... same thing for consciousness.
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