Patterner

It's possible we disagree about what the evidence is saying, and what the hard problem is. I do not think the evidence is insisting that consciousness...

I doubt anyone disputes that the only types and examples of consciousness we are aware of cannot exist without their physical components. But that onl...

Christopher Koch, the president and chief scientist of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and someone's who believes consciousness can be explaine...

:lol:

So you're unconscious at the moment?

Amen!

The starving man might think, "This is it? This is life? Pain and misery? Life is meaningless." He might think that, because he can. No other animal c...

My favorite show of all time.

Lots of good philosophy in Trek. More in Northern Exposure.

Here's a good moment from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Short conversation between Dr. Crusher and Data (an AI android, for those who don't know):Th...

I guess my point is merely noting that humans can choose meanings that are biological imperatives/things other living things do, or that are beyond wh...

I wish they would choose one of the alternatives that have been used in sci-fi. Like ze/zir. As you say, we use "they" when we don't know the person's...

I see two different types of meaning in what you two are saying. I don't know what to make of it, and maybe it isn't important. But it occurred to me,...

Indeed. Some might come to realize their decision was not too their liking. Or they might think it's shallow. Or whatever. And they might think more o...

I can see the possibility of choosing badly. Meaning regretting your choice. Hopefully, you aren't on your deathbed when this regret hits you. If you'...

The appearance of our consciousness and intelligence put us there. They make us the only known thing that conceives of these ideas. Someone conceived ...

I'm not remotely close to having any expertise in linguistics, semiotics (a word I never heard untill I read it here a cooker months ago), meaning, or...

I think it is a couple things. 1) Subjective experience Having a point of view, which means one experiences things. As opposed to things simply happen...

Anybody/thing capable of understanding the concept is free to choose the meaning of their own life.

Then I ask you to prove tI've been doing quaddition, not addition.

Do you prefer the terms "detectors" and "detecting"?

Although I don't think I agree, let's just go with this. Is this not a coherent answer that distinguishes what it's like from merely seeing, hearing, ...

IMO, Brian Greene does an excellent job of explaining entropy in Until the End of Time.

Well, yes. Perhaps I didn't word my question well. I think Janus is saying the terms are not defined well. I'm trying to see if we can come up with an...

Is it possible that electric devices (or anything) have subjective experience and awareness of things, but don't care about, desire, or want to avoid ...

Perhaps we can work on this. Perhaps a starting point could be asking: Is there a difference between, say, an electronic device with a sensor that can...

“What it’s like” means subjective experience. There is something it is like to be me, because I have subjective experiences. There is nothing it is li...

I hadn’t read that post. Yes, I see that now.

What I was trying to get at is that there was “what it’s likeness” before there were homo sapiens. What you are describing here:is not the “likeness” ...

“What its likeness” exists in other animals, and surely existed before homo sapiens showed up. Nagel used the bat as an example. Things happen to rock...

Excellent question. I hadn’t thought of it that way. That being the case, how can we calculate the odds that all of the particles needed to form a BB ...

I would not have thought that I have been giving the impression that that’s what I believe. I was stating a position that some people believe that mak...

Ah! I understand. Thanks. IIRC, The people who got the Nobel accidentally discovered it. They were trying to find the source of the "noise" in there r...

Why is that? The world does its thing, one level emerging from the previous, in consistent ways. The more we learn about those ways, the more predicti...

Yes, I just read that a few weeks ago, as I was trying to learn about semiosis. It is a fascinating point!

It's nature is consistent. Not random or chaotic. The strength of gravity and the strong nuclear force, the speed of light, etc., are what they are. T...

Yes. But it grew up from itself within the framework of laws. Physics expresses itself as chemistry. But the new laws of chemistry are not unrelated t...

I believe otherwise. That's true. And an illusion that is viewed as real by itself seems strange.

I have not. Thank you. Is that not exactly how the universe was constructed? It does not imply we can do that, but that is exactly how things work. At...

I have no earthly idea what Aristoyelian causes are. But I was thinking wondering about the minimum definition of "city." If a certain number of peopl...

I don't know if you're saying something I'm not catching. I don't know what the best wording to describer three idea is, but Kurzweil spells it out li...

Yes, I agree. I was speaking for those who say consciousness is only our observation/recognition of what is happening. A byproduct. (I'm not wording t...

Indeed. I agree entirely. Because consciousness is at least as important to the existence of cities as buildings. Cities are the next step up from the...

I think how similar something is to us also has a lot to do with whether or not we think it is conscious. we give the benefit of the doubt to each oth...

It is a pickle. They could be p-zombies. My wife could be a p-zombie. Of course, I don't have reason to believe you are even that, since I only see wo...

We might believe they are as conscious as we are, depending on the things they say and do. I think it would be a point in favor of consciousness that ...

Exactly. Reexamining ourselves is not necessarily a bad thing. And keeping the communication going can't be bad, either. I look at it this way... If w...

Many of us do not share the belief that "the relationship between chemistry and life is analogous to the relationship between neurology and mind." We ...

Sounds to me like that makes the familiar worried doubly removed. Because we're only getting appearances from organs that are, themselves, appearances...

Your belief that an atheist cannot hear thunder if someone says it is god's will is probably an important topic. But, yes, a different topic. The prob...