2015-02-04 7:43 GMT+01:00 meekerdb <[email protected]>: > On 2/3/2015 9:12 PM, Jason Resch wrote: > > Well the question "is something conscious?" is binary, like "is >> something alive?". However there is a great spectrum of possible living >> entities, and a massive gulf that separates the simplest life forms from >> the most complex life forms. I think the same is true of consciousness. The >> mars rover might be conscious, but its consciousness might be as simple as >> a bacterium's biology is compared to a human's. >> >> >> That seems inconsistent with being "binary", like "being alive". First, >> being alive isn't "binary". Are viruses alive? Prions? Cigarettes? >> > > Any of those things are either alive or they aren't (according to some > theory of liveness). > > > So you simply define "alive" to be all or nothing by invoking some "theory > of liveness" - however arbitrarily you have to draw the line. Not a very > defensible position. > > But wherever is the line... there is a line between dead or alive, if there wasn't, then everything is alive... emptying the alive concept... same thing for consciousness.
Quentin > Brent > > -- > 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. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. (Roy Batty/Rutger Hauer) -- 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. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
