Now that my universe thread has cooled down, I'm going to join this thread to get my dosage of philosophy. And as usual, I'm going to settle on the far fringes of what's considered sane.
Quote:
Original post by Witchcraven
If you look at any part of the human body, it essentially breaks down into basic physical forces. How does consciousness arise from that?
It doesn't.
Consciousness does not arise and can not arise from a brain. A brain is just a network of interconnected neurons which works in three basic steps:
while (!brain.dead){ GetInputFromSenses(); Think(); Act();}
In fact, a brain is just an organic CPU.
If a brain is conscious, then why isn't a CPU conscious? They are both machines that are composed of non-conscious materials. If you're going to say that a brain is conscious, then a CPU has to be conscious as well. Either that, or you'll have to explain what makes a brain different from a CPU.
It's important to make a distinction between the terms self-awareness, consciousness and intelligence. Intelligence can exist in the absence self-awareness or consciousness. Self-awareness can exist in the absence of consciousness or intelligence.
Our human brain is intelligent and self-aware. Some animal brains are intelligent and self-aware as well, but most lower animal brains are just intelligent. No brain is conscious, however.
I define self-awareness as an entity's ability to recognize itself as a separate entity in the world it perceives. I define intelligence as the ability to process data in some form - a microchip is intelligent by this criteria. I can not define consciousness however, as it is entirely subjective. Consciousness is simply out of this world. I guess I can approximate it by defining it as
a subjective experience of existence, but that definition is not perfect.
Quote:
Original post by Sneftel
And yet a person is conscious, despite the fact that he doesn't contain any sort of homunculus, but rather is made up of decidedly non-conscious elements, the same elements that make up decidedly non-conscious things, like molasses. If there's no secret Consciousness-Boson hiding in the brain, then what is there to create that consciousness other than the rules and tasks binding the bits of the brain together?
Very well put.
