On Apr 2, 8:06 pm, Stathis Papaioannou <stath...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 6:08 AM, Craig Weinberg <whatsons...@gmail.com> wrote: > > From blindsight, synesthesia, and anosognosia we know that particular > > qualia are not inevitably associated with the conditions they usually > > represent for us, so it seems impossible to justify qualia on a > > functionalist basis. Just as a computer needs no speakers and video > > screen inside itself, there is no purpose for such a presentation > > layer within our own mechanism. Of course, even if there were a > > purpose, there is no hint of such a possibility from mechanism alone. > > If there was some reason that a bucket of rocks could benefit by some > > kind of collective 'experience' occurring amongst them, that's a > > million miles from suspecting that experience could be a conceivable > > possibility. > > > Rather than 'consciousness', human beings would benefit evolutionarily > > much more by just being able to do something mechanically conceivable > > things like teleport, time travel, or breathe fire. Awareness doesn't > > even make sense as a possibility. Were we not experiencing it > > ourselves we could never anticipate any such possibility in any > > universe. > > Since there is no evolutionary advantage to consciousness it must be a > side-effect of the sort of behaviour that conscious organisms display. > Otherwise, why did we not evolve as zombies?
Because existence is a subordinate category of awareness and not the other way around. Evolution is an epiphenomenon of physics, and physics is the back end of the Totality. The front end is awareness. To assume that consciousness must be a side-effect of something else begs the question of the origin of consciousness and arbitrarily privileges purposeless mechanism from the start. Once you make that presumption, it follows logically that consciousness must be an illusion since it can't be explained. The logic isn't bad, it's just based on initial assumptions that aren't carefully examined. Awareness transcends logic. “I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.” - Max Planck 25 January, 1931” Craig -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
