On 7/5/2024 12:18 PM, John Clark wrote:
On Fri, Jul 5, 2024 at 1:41 PM Jason Resch <jasonre...@gmail.com> wrote:
/> I finished this section for my article on consciousness:/
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/https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jq3uOucSStCPe5TQnUv-8YWvGUW05Enr/view?usp=sharing
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/It is an important question, because if zombies are not possible,
then consciousness is not optional. Rather, consciousness would be
logically necessary, in any system having the right configuration./
Anybody who claims that philosophical zombies are possible needs to
ask themselves one question.Natural selection cannot select for
something it cannot see, and it can't directly see consciousness any
better than we can, except in ourselves; so how did Evolution
manage to produce at least one conscious being, and probably many
billions of them? I think the answer is that although Evolutioncan't
see consciousness it can certainly see intelligent activity, so
consciousness must be an inevitable byproduct of intelligence.
I think you're jumping to conclusions that make consciousness seem
mysterious, as though a laptop processes data and therefore is feeling
conscious. There are different levels/kinds of intelligence and
correspondingly different kinds and levels of consciousness and
evolution can "see" them. Simple animals like hydra and paramecia are
conscious of chemical gradients and move accordingly. But I don't think
they have a concept of their location in space. But planaria do. They
can remember directions. So can bees. Human and some mammals have the
ability to imagine themselves in scenarios and to plan accordingly.
That's where the inner narrative comes in, which is facilitated a lot by
language. I think such foresight is a necessary component of
intelligence, not a "byproduct".
Brent
Or to put it another way, it's a brute fact that consciousness is the
way data feels when it is being processed. After all, without
exception, every iterated sequence of "why" or "how" questions either
goes on forever or terminates in a brute fact.
John K Clark See what's on my new list at Extropolis
<https://groups.google.com/g/extropolis>
wfn
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