On Wednesday, March 20, 2013 5:44:23 PM UTC, John Clark wrote: > > On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 , Craig Weinberg <[email protected] <javascript:>>wrote: > > >>> We can write books and other people can read them, so that must prove >>>> that consciousness is not caused by neurochemistry. >>>> >>> >>> >> What the hell??? >>> >> >> > Books aren't neurological, right? >> > > Right, but they are certainly material. > > > There is no direct link between the author's brain and the reader's >> brain. >> > > There is never a "direct link" between one mind and another, there is > always a material middle man, usually many, such as photons reflected off > paper in a book, or air vibrations from vocal cords, or in chemical changes > in the nerves of fingers, or whatever. > > > Just like the light switch >> > > There is not a "direct link" between the light switch and the light going > on either, the closing of the light switch just caused a current to flow in > the wire, the current flow didn't cause the light either it just caused the > filament in the light bulb to get hot, it was the hot electrons in the > filament that caused the electromagnetic waves to be produced. >
I think explanations are important to prove causation ;-) and it's interesting that you can break this example down. Each explanatory step is materially plausible (it has a satisfactory public explanation), right up to the perception of the light. But the qualia (qualium?) itself doesn't have a public description, and there isn't any sense of satisfaction that it has been explained. It's tempting to believe that's because it's a complicated step, but there seems no obvious way to reduce it. So as far as I can see it is still only an assumption, with the hope/faith that some plausible explanation will one day be found. I'm not sure there are many other widely-held scientific explanations like this one? > > > you remove any connection between neurons, yet the words of one brain >> (or brain activity ostensibly associated with the words) are still >> transmitted from one to the other. >> > > When you write books I don't always read them AND if I don't read your > book your book still exists, so I can say with great confidence that my > reading of your books does not cause your books to exist. > > John K Clark > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
