On Wed, Apr 28, 2021 at 8:32 AM Terren Suydam <[email protected]> wrote:
*> John - do you have any response?* > If you insist. >> It's not hard to make progress in consciousness research, it's >>> impossible. >>> >> >> *So we should ignore experiments where you stimulate the brain and the >> subject reports experiencing some kind of qualia,* >> > We should always pay attention to all relevant *BEHAVIOR**,* including *BEHAVIOR* such as noises produced by the mouths of other people. > >*Why doesn't that represent progress? * >> > It may represent progress but not progress towards understanding consciousness. > *Is it because you don't trust people's reports?* Trust but verify. When you and I talk about consciousness I don't even know if we're talking about the same thing; perhaps by your meaning of the word I am not conscious, maybe I'm conscious by my meaning of the word but not by yours, maybe my consciousness is just a pale pitiful thing compared to the grand glorious awareness that you have and what you mean by the word "consciousness". Maybe comparing your consciousness to mine is like comparing a firefly to a supernova. Or maybe it's the other way around. Neither of us will ever know. * > in an FMRI has lead to some interesting facts.* >> > An FMRI may help us understand how the brain works and perhaps even how intelligence works, but I think behavior will tell us twice as much as a squiggle on a FMRI graph can about consciousness, and that would be exactly twice as much unless we make use of the unproven and unprovable axiom that intelligent behavior is a sign of consciousness. > *> You seem to think progress can only mean being able to prove >> conclusively how consciousness works.* >> > I don't demand that consciousness researchers do anything as ambitious as explaining how consciousness is produced, all I ask is a proof that I am not the only conscious entity in the universe. But they can't even do that and never will be able to. John K Clark See what's on my new list at Extropolis <https://groups.google.com/g/extropolis> . . > > -- 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/CAJPayv39t6-uC6z55HBerygGSWPBMKZKEsNiX%3D3kQ7FVyfTLTw%40mail.gmail.com.
