tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225845069335197596.post7215361073230357824..comments2024-03-19T04:32:54.480-07:00Comments on in consciousness we trust: why i am not a biopsychistHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09168053864872046182noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225845069335197596.post-63102035403837409382020-05-20T04:39:06.234-07:002020-05-20T04:39:06.234-07:00Why do you place such emphasis on (visual) percept...Why do you place such emphasis on (visual) perceptual experiences when considering the prospect of strong bio-psychism? I have not read Godfrey-Smith in a while but, from memory, he raises the possibility of so-called 'primordial emotions' – roughly, feelings which reflect important changes in an organism's homeostasis like hunger, thirst, pain and so on. These feelings don't seem to have much to do with visual perception, and are perhaps unlikely to depend on primate visual specialisations. Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11458926013560989635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225845069335197596.post-59935580371875326802020-05-14T23:11:48.351-07:002020-05-14T23:11:48.351-07:00I believe Aristotle in the De Anima (On the Soul) ...I believe Aristotle in the De Anima (On the Soul) held a similar position, when he claimed that "The soul is the first actuality of a natural body that has life potentially".Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00263413550871587128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225845069335197596.post-29416697643582057062020-05-14T21:27:23.985-07:002020-05-14T21:27:23.985-07:00Sorry for the now huge comment but an obvious resp...Sorry for the now huge comment but an obvious response is: "Neurons themselves naturally die / change their reliability characteristics over time. Progressively replacing parts with electronics changes you similarly in this respect".<br /><br />This gets to my overall view: Either way you're an evolving system with experiences/sensations/qualia that never recur exactly (just *different* interactions externally and internally) but we classify them as recurring in order to make sense of the world and ourselves. Same goes for 'consciousness' — it's not one thing; it's various aspects of the complex embedding of the evolving system in environment. So interesting systems like us don't have to be biological, but some changes are bigger than others (this can get empirical traction).<br /><br />The above plus self-models, causal/ID stories over time, and kinda random indexicality dissolve these kinds of philosophical 'consciousness' problems, I think.<br /><br />DeanAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02577774412006130343noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1225845069335197596.post-88189409982030873382020-05-14T20:19:55.323-07:002020-05-14T20:19:55.323-07:00I'm so happy about this and the last post push...I'm so happy about this and the last post pushing the conversation in the right direction.<br /><br />A point that I think is under-appreciated, along the lines of what Bryce and Evan note: Hypothetically 'functionally equivalent' replacement parts/sub-systems/systems (e.g., advanced electronic components progressively replacing neurons a la Chalmers etc.) will not have the same *low level" reliability and random noise characteristics as their biological predecessors (bc they are fundamentally subject to their own). You could just push the problem further down but then I suspect you'd really be cornered into the replacement parts essentially being biological (possibly due to fundamental noise properties at the quantum level).<br /><br />Obvious following question is: Are reliability and randomness characteristics essential (in the relevant sense) to producing the phenomena? Not my field but I suspect so to some extent, and this might be able to be cashed out empirically / quantum theoretically (I'm not claiming that QM is magically responsible for consc — I'm conjecturing something much weaker and more specific).<br /><br />Thoughts?<br /><br />Looking forward to the draft-y paper!<br /><br />DeanAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02577774412006130343noreply@blogger.com