Hi Krimel, > I recently learned that this anesthesia acts mainly by interfering with memory formation. Apparently, while "under", I appear to be very drunk and passive. I could answer if spoken to and so forth. I just don't remember any of it.
There is this guy, Clive Wearing, who because of brain damage cannot form new memories. His most frequent complaint is that he has just woken up and has never before been conscious, never had a thought or a dream. I suspect memory is a big factor in there somewhere and if I have learned anything from my years playing with computers it's that you cannot have too much RAM or too big of a hard drive. ----- Chilling thought, that. Before the written word, when knowledge was handed down through stories told from memory, people really exercised their brains. Once writing was invented, I am sure there was a contingent of old-timers who felt that humanity was going to hell in a handbasket because we would no longer have to remember long passages. Google has taken this to a new level. It is now our memory bank. Why should I remember arcane computer command lines, recipes, addresses, or anything else when I can look it up in an instant? Does this make me dumber or smarter? Smarter, perhaps because I now have more mental cycles to devote to things like the MoQ. Memory supplements intelligence, but is not intelligence. Einstein did not develop his theories by collating a bunch of known facts. He was instead able to tap into amorphous Quality to capture new ideas - seemingly from nowhere. A Quality event. Computers have prodigious memories, but very little judgment about how to use all the knowledge they have stored. They don't even know how valuable it is considering how often they lose it. What is going to happen when someone creates the first self-aware computer program? They already control our entire financial system, load balance electrical output, run trains, assist doctor's with operations, control nuclear power plants. Most ordinary businesses could not survive one day without their computer systems. What if they decide they don't agree with us? - Mary -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Krimel Sent: Friday, January 08, 2010 3:40 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [MD] Intellectual and Social [John] > Consciousness rather than self awareness...the difference between those two? [Craig] I thought 'consciousness' was being aware of something & 'self awareness' being aware of being aware of something. [Krimel] Not sure how this fits in exactly but I am getting a bit long in the tooth and have had more than my share of endoscopies and colonoscopies. These are conducted under anesthesia. The nurse says something like, "bye, bye" and Bamm! I am out. I wake up in a different place just like someone flipped a light switch on. I recently learned that this anesthesia acts mainly by interfering with memory formation. Apparently, while "under", I appear to be very drunk and passive. I could answer if spoken to and so forth. I just don't remember any of it. There is this guy, Clive Wearing, who because of brain damage cannot form new memories. His most frequent complaint is that he has just woken up and has never before been conscious, never had a thought or a dream. I suspect memory is a big factor in there somewhere and if I have learned anything from my years playing with computers it's that you cannot have too much RAM or too big of a hard drive. Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
