On Mon, Mar 19, 2018 at 05:19:11PM -0400, John Clark wrote: > On Sun, Mar 18, 2018 at 10:03 PM, Brent Meeker <[email protected]> wrote > > *> octopuses are fairly intelligent but their neural structure is > > distributed very differently from mammals of similar intelligence. An > > artificial intelligence that was not modeled on mammalian brain structure > > might be intelligent but not conscious* > > > Maybe maybe maybe. > A > nd you don't have have the exact same brain structure as I have so you > might be intelligent but not conscious. I said it before I'll say it again, > consciousness theories are useless, and not just the ones on this list, all > of them. > > John K Clark
In my backyard, pretty much about 200m from where I'm sitting now, we have these amazing creatures called giant cuttlefish. These are about the size of a dog (which breed of dog you say? - well yes there's that sort of variation in size too). They (like most cephalopods) are masters of camouflage. To be really effective in camouflage, you need to know what the things you're hiding from is seeing. Cuttlefish use different camo patterns and communication methods depending on whether they're trying to avoid sharks or dolphins. I had the experience of one of these animals approaching me looking for all the world like a bunch of kelp. The instant I saw its eyes, it knew its disguise was blown, and it scarpered. I had the strong feeling that here was an animal reading my mind as I its. I can't be sure, of course, but I'm pretty convinced from that cuttlefish are conscious beings. It seems hard to imagine them being able to understand other animals minds without also being aware of their own, and their place in the world. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Principal, High Performance Coders Visiting Senior Research Fellow [email protected] Economics, Kingston University http://www.hpcoders.com.au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- 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 https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
