On Friday, May 17, 2019, John Clark <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, May 17, 2019 at 5:37 PM Jason Resch <[email protected]> wrote: > > *> I was referring to the reflexes of your arm, before any signal gets to >> your brain. So here we have both information processing (small number of >> bits) and intelligent behavior (withdrawing an appendage from a flame), so >> can we rule out the consciousness of the nerves in your elbow? If so, how?* >> > > Excellent question! How can we rule out consciousness in something > external? And a related question, how can we rule consciousness in? The > simple answer is we can't. Maybe rocks are conscious and maybe Einstein > wasn't, but my hunch is that is not true although I'll never be able to > prove it. I do know that information processing is not a all or nothing > matter, it comes in degrees, so another hunch I have is that the same is > true for consciousness. I'll never be able to prove that holds true for you > but I know for a fact sometimes I am more conscious than others and > sometimes I am not conscious at all; my brain is doing something during > those times but I surmise it is not extracting information from data. > > It may be that in those times your brain is doing everything it normally does except for forming memories.
How terrifying an idea that some anesthetic might be invented that both paralyzed you but also blocked memory formation, and did nothing else. Jason > John K Clark > > > > > > > -- > 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/ > msgid/everything-list/CAJPayv2%2Bm8wikBKJuw1uJSqbt% > 3DRYf-XHCwNhKNbuAc94bG4xYQ%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAJPayv2%2Bm8wikBKJuw1uJSqbt%3DRYf-XHCwNhKNbuAc94bG4xYQ%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CA%2BBCJUg%3DY2OnCwhyF1tz1JR6nquCZG8v79TU25-ovtn10Dm05Q%40mail.gmail.com.
