On 28 February 2014 15:22, Craig Weinberg <whatsons...@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thursday, February 27, 2014 8:03:15 PM UTC-5, Liz R wrote:
>
>> On 28 February 2014 03:02, Craig Weinberg <whats...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> In other words, why, in a functionalist/materialist world would we need
>>> a breakable program to keep telling us that our hand is not Alien?
>>>
>>> Or contrariwise, why do you need a breakable programme to tell you that
>> it's your hand?
>>
>
> Sure, that too. It doesn't make sense functionally. What difference does
> it make 'who' the hand 'belongs' to, as long as it performs as a hand.
>

It's important for an animal to be able to distinguish self from non-self,
as can be seen if two animals are locked in combat - one that can't tell
its own limb from its opponent's is just as likely to bite itself as its
prey. Repeat that often enough and you have a strong evolutionary pressure
to distinguish self from non-self. I would imagine alien hand syndrome is a
breakdown of this system.

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