On 2/3/2015 11:46 PM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:
2015-02-04 7:43 GMT+01:00 meekerdb <[email protected] <mailto:[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.
There is a line between black and white, if there wasn't then everything is black. Or is everything white? Do you only want to draw lines to define words, or do you want use words to discuss concepts? Are viri alive? Are prions alive?
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