Unseen

The OP is a question; WHY are we conscious and the only assumption embodied in it is that we ARE conscious. Of course, maybe we're not.

I'm asking why we are conscious in the sense of "is it necessary to be conscious" not "how did our consciousness come about."

How do you elevate a chemical reaction (in an amoeba, for example) to a chemical condition outside its cellular border to having an experience? You're...

That's a how answer masquerading as a why answer. A genetic mutation, for example, might explain how some life got consciousness gratuitously, for exa...

I know it with about the same certainty as I know that I'm not writing from the surface of the moon. The lack of a sufficiently evolved nervous system...

I'll respond when you isolate your key point or points and make it/them concisely and with brevity. I've state elsewhere that I don't have time to res...

I don't think it evolved the way the eye evolved. I think it is a mutation that was never eliminated. The reason I believe this is that I see no need ...

I don't deny the primacy of mind. I deny that conscious mind is necessarily an essential, much less necessary, aspect of that mind. But mind itself is...

I'll stop you right there. The universe literally would not exist without someone to perceive it. That is the position known as idealism (vs. material...

Well, that is pretty much my position. The real action goes on whether like it or know it or not, but we only find out about some of it. Since it's al...

Scientists often do not see the implications of their work on philosophical issues, and thus don't draw conclusions. How many scientists depend upon a...

Yes, but it is the brain/pre-conscious mind doing that. It could be doing that without you being conscious (having experiences) at all!

The mind is a production of the brain.

All the things you are attributing to consciousness are done by the brain in an activity we can all pre-conscious mind (a mind behind the mind we expe...

As I have stated several times, in my terminology, "consciousness" is being in the state of having experiences. To be conscious is to be experiencing ...

I have defined consciousness for my purpose as being in the state of having experiences.

Your point is rather obvious, because the only way to be totally contemporaneous to what's going on is to BE what's going on.

You: Science shows us that consciousness is always temporally behind the times — Unseen Does this refer to sensory awareness? Me: That, yes, and also ...

I have levels of consciousness. Two of them. The pre-conscious "mind" which is in control, and the conscious mind watching whatever the pre-conscious ...

There's no evidence whatsoever that consciousness can do anything since deeds are decided upon before the consciousness finds out about them. How COUL...

I have given you the science that shows that what is present in the consciousness is old news, having been processed in the brain a short time earlier...

You don't believe in facts? I believe consciousness is a primitive, unanalyzable notion. We know it directly. It can't be put on a table and autopsied...

Hang your hat on someday you'll be right if you like.

From another post: Science shows us that consciousness is always temporally behind the times and experiments show that the brain has made the decision...

I've MADE an argument: Science shows us that consciousness is always temporally behind the times and experiments show that the brain has made the deci...

I'm not running away from the description of consciousness as an epiphenomenon of something temporally prior. What else can it be? A thing on its own?...

You wrote: " But you go farther, and assert that the conscious mind does nothing and has no function. This is not among the things that science has SH...

Ah the cowards who hurl an insult as they rush out the door. Bye-b You and others seem to alccuse me of repeating myself. I've pointed out (I repeat) ...

The conscious mind is a show the brain/pre-conscious mind puts on. There is no dualism asserted. The conscious mind is something the brain does.

You wrote: "How about this: Consciousness is simply a byproduct/side-effect of logical ability." In other words, as science is showing us, NONE of the...

No, my argument is not "about epiphenomenalism," it's about the apparent fact that the consciousness has nothing to do and going down a sidebar about ...

There Is No Such Thing as Conscious Thought and Brain Scanners Can See Your Decisions Before you Make Them

I think a mouse has an advantage in a maze, actualy. It can probably smell where it's already been!

Consciousness can only do what the brain tells it to do. The conscious mind is an epiphenomenon of the brain. Or are you a dualist, where matter and m...

You wrote: "These are nothing but bland assertions. How do you know that human-like intelligence can go without consciousness? Why is it absurd to sup...

You wrote: "That said I want to mention one thing. If life ever is to step beyond depending on random mutations for survival, consciousness is require...

Since the conscious mind is merely a person watching a movie, what's the benefit?

I think we had conscious minds long before we started using terminology like "mind" or "consciousness." I just don't understand why we have something ...

What do you mean by saying humans didn't always have it? What state of homo (whatever) was not conscious? I'm pretty sure my cat is conscious and even...

luckswallowsall's statement is nonsense because conscousness is simply a show put on by the brain. Consciousness actually DOES nothing. It's like a pe...

“If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.” ? Albert Einstein

Still, if intelligence is the goal of "artificial INTELLIGENCE," many scientists believe AI will be smarter than humans in a few decades, if not soone...

It would seem that the learning is done in the brain, not the consciousness. The brain selectively passes along stuff to the consciousness. The consci...

I don't respond to bedsheet posts. I think I said that early on in this discussion. If you have a real point to make, you can make it with brevity.

I'm at a loss to understand how you arrived at that notion. I move around based on what the pre-consciousness deems to be worthy noticing and actin on...

You don't think AI comes close to human intelligence? Twenty-two years ago IBM's Big Blue defeated chess champ Gary Kasparov. "A team of researchers f...

Here's what I'm saying: First, the consciousness has no direct connection without the world. Some degree of processing goes on before your consciousne...

It appears we could get by with what I'm calling the pre-conscious alone.

I move around in the world based on the information that the pre-conscious mind filters to send to the conscious mind. It's well-known that we don't n...

Science doesn't even know what consciousness is or how it's produced, so science isn't much help. Meanwhile, we can see that AI is developing rapidly ...