On 17 February 2014 02:34, David Nyman <da...@davidnyman.com> wrote: > On 16 February 2014 17:42, meekerdb <meeke...@verizon.net> wrote: > >> I don't disagree, but I think this formulation leaves "meaning" as >> mysterious and one may ask why consciousness creates meaning. I think >> meaning comes from being able to act in the world to realize values. And it >> doesn't require consciousness, at least not human like consciousness. The >> Mars Rover acts to fulfill a mission plan and so rocks and hills have >> meaning for it. > > > Unfortunately this seems to me to beg the questions it seeks to answer. The > Mars Rover certainly acts in a manner consistent with rocks and hills having > meaning for it (based on our empathic identification with its situation) but > its behaviour can equally be attributed to physics alone (as indeed can > ours, under the same physicalist assumptions). But I agree that meaning is > related to value and hence cries out for an explanation of value that > resists elimination by reduction to an account in purely physical terms. > This requirement probably implies some necessary relation between meaning > and consciousness, or at least self-reference. It may be that the > ramifications of computational reference may ultimately lead to such an > explanation, but that is beyond my competence to assess. Right now I don't > have any other suggestions. > > David
I think Brent feels he has the answer to the question of what is needed to give rise to meaning/feeling/consciousness etc. His position is quite attractive and consistent, but I am not sure how to convince myself that it is true. -- Stathis Papaioannou -- 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 everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
