> On 12 May 2015, at 10:40 am, Bruce Kellett <bhkell...@optusnet.com.au> wrote: > > Stathis Papaioannou wrote: >>> On 12 May 2015, at 8:25 am, Russell Standish <li...@hpcoders.com.au> wrote: >>> >>> It won't be a specific electron that will switch consciousness off >>> regardless of the order in which you remove parts, as you seem to be >>> implying here, but rather, in a specific sequence of removal of parts, >>> there will be one part that when removed causes the switching off. >> The final straw would have to be indivisible, otherwise you could make a >> partial zombie by replacing half the straw. >> It would lead to a strange form of computationalism: you could replace say >> 40% of the brain without any problem, but go to 40.00000001% and >> consciousness gies off. > > That seems to be the case in the real world. As brain tissue is destroyed, by > injury or disease, specific functionality is lost according to the brain area > destroyed, but there is not a fading of consciousness until quite late in > this process. Alzheimer's patients can be perfectly conscious although > totally gaga. > > Of course, consciousness is also lost if there is whole-of-brain trauma, such > as is induced by a very sharp blow on the head. These two observations are > not in conflict.
Consciousness has a broader meaning than just being awake. If your memory starts to go, you forget things, and your experience of life changes as a result. -- 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/d/optout.
