2008/12/7 Kory Heath <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > I see what you mean. But I'm uncomfortable with (what I perceive as) > the resulting vagueness in the platonic view of consciousness. You've > indicated that you think of consciousness as fundamentally > computational and Platonic - that's it's an essential side-effect of > platonic computations, as addition is the essential side-effect of the > sum of two-numbers. But if we don't have a clear conception of > "platonic computations", do we even really know what we're talking > about? I'm worried, essentially, that the move to Platonia "solves" > the problems created by these thought experiments only by creating a > view of consciousness that's too vague to allow such problems to arise.
I agree that it's vague, but any way you look at it consciousness is vague, slippery and elusive. This is probably why philosophers and scientists who like to be clear about things have sometimes come to the conclusion that consciousness is not real at all: the only real thing is intelligence, which manifests as intelligent behaviour. This idea steers a course between Scylla (paradoxes) and Charybdis (vagueness and mysticism) and is attractive... as long as you avoid introspection. -- Stathis Papaioannou --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
