Russell Standish wrote:
This leads to a speculation that memories are an essential requirement
for consciousness...
I agree. Had I known then what I know now, I would have asked the
nursing staff and doctor to question me in detail about my first person
experience *while it was happening*, since all I can think about now is
how I felt before and after.
Was I oriented to time, place, who I was, and what was happening to me?
Did my first person experience of consciousness "seem" any different?
(Aside from the obvious mellowness that any sedative induces.)
While I was undergoing the procedure, and feeling the pain, did I regret
the decision to be "awake" but not remember later?
Knowing that I would forget this, is there anything about what I was
experiencing that I'd want to be noted so I could read about it afterward?
etc.
So I do wonder, if I was "awake" and responding accurately to verbal
cues, but not "laying down memories", was I really conscious? Of
course, it *seems* to me now that I was unconscious the whole time, with
some odd "emergent effects" as the Versed wore off. But as I've
gathered from reading folks like Dennett, what things seem like and what
actually is happening can be very different things.
Performing the question & answer session described above is at least
part of my willingness to undergo conscious sedation again.
-Johnathan
