i killed a dog.. my zombieness made me do it.... On Tue, Aug 2, 2011 at 11:21 PM, archytas <[email protected]> wrote:
> "We have access to a technology that would have looked like sorcery in > Descartes's day: the ability to peer inside someone's head and read > their thoughts. Unfortunately, that doesn't take us any nearer to > knowing whether they are sentient. "Even if you measure brainwaves, > you can never know exactly what experience they represent," says > psychologist Bruce Hood at the University of Bristol, UK. If > anything, brain scanning has undermined Descartes's maxim. You, too, > might be a zombie. "I happen to be one myself," says Stanford > University philosopher Paul Skokowski. "And so, even if you don't > realise it, are you." Skokowski's assertion is based on the belief, > particularly common among neuroscientists who study brain scans, that > we do not have free will. There is no ghost in the machine; our > actions are driven by brain states that lie entirely beyond our > control. "I think, therefore I am" might be an illusion. > So, it may well be that you live in a computer simulation in which you > are the only self-aware creature. I could well be a zombie and so > could you. Have an interesting day." (from a recent New Scientist) > > We range over debates in free will and what it is to be human. So far > we haven't established free will or even that we are not merely > avatars in 'something else's game'. > > I wonder whether there are advantages in considering ourselves as > creatures limited by programming and also capable of it? -- EverComing
