On 2/4/2015 11:37 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:
2015-02-04 20:00 GMT+01:00 meekerdb <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>: On 2/4/2015 1:09 AM, Quentin Anciaux wrote:So I agree completely that there are levels of consciousness, as there level of carness, but there is a level (whatever it is) which when you're below it, there is no more consciousness... like when it's 0 it's 0, it's no more positive, whatever word play you want to do.Notice though that you have to keep resorting to this qualification "whatever it is", which tells me that it's arbitrary and just a matter of words, that there's no principled dichotomy. It means you can make-up a definition for the line, but it's just a way of defining the word not a sharp operational distinction.No it means there is a distinction... there is a line between 0 and positive number, no positive number is 0... no consciousness == 0, consciousness > 0... unless you argue there is no state of "not consciousness" this holds true.But in any case I think it's more important to recognize that there can be qualitatively different kinds of intelligence and hence there may be qualitatively different kinds of consciousness.We did acknowledge this several times now... that doesn't preclude "not consciousness" state, it is not because there is a lot of consciousness state, that pure "not consciousness" does not exists... unless you argue everything is conscious, in that case ok, consciousness/non consciousness would not be a binary dichotomy... but then a rock has a consciousness, which seems rather absurd.
Of course I agree that some things are not conscious (including sometimes myself). The original statement I objected to was Jason's claim that consciouness is binary, i.e. it is 1 or 0, all-or-nothing.
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