On Wed, Jul 10, 2024 at 11:53 PM Brent Meeker <[email protected]> wrote:
> >> "My dictionary says the definition of "*prerequisite*" is "*a thing >> that is required as a prior condition for something else to happen or >> exist*". And >> it says the definition of "*cause*" is "*a person or thing that gives >> rise to an action, phenomenon, or condition*". So cause and prerequisite >> are synonyms." > > > *> A more careful reading of the definitions would tell you that a > prerequisite doesn't does not give rise to an action; but it's absence > precludes the action.* > OK. But if it's a brute fact that consciousness is the way data feels when it is being processed, and if intelligent action requires data processing, then if by some magic (it has to be magic because neither science nor mathematics can help you with this) you knew that system X was not conscious, then you could correctly predict that its actions would not be intelligent. Consciousness is a high-level description of the state of a system, that's why when I asked somebody "*why did you do that?*" sometimes "because I wanted to" is an adequate explanation. But sometimes I want a lower level more detailed explanation such as "*I frowned when I took a bite of that food because it was much too salty*". A neurophysiologist might want an even more detailed explanation involving neurons and synapses. None of these explanations are wrong and all of them are consistent with each other. It would be correct to say that the reason a balloon gets bigger when I blow into it is because the pressure inside the balloon increases, but it would also be correct to say that the reason a balloon gets bigger when I blow into it is because there are more air molecules inside the balloon randomly hitting the inner surface. John K Clark See what's on my new list at Extropolis <https://groups.google.com/g/extropolis>m isb -- 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/CAJPayv3pGTYkrOUtTytHKPE30Tf5hmGaeRTwWKjFVvbL%2BSQ6ng%40mail.gmail.com.
