Consciousness as a property of matter was (Re: Animal Consciousness (was Mindless Thought Experiments))

From: Günther Greindl (guenther.greindl@gmail.com)
Date: Fri Mar 07 2008 - 13:33:49 MST


Hi guys,

I think the only viable way to go for a materialist is micropsychism:
Galen Strawson (a philosopher) has a very lucid and well argued paper
on the subject.
His page:
http://web.gc.cuny.edu/philosophy/people/strawson.html

The paper:
'Realistic monism: why physicalism entails panpsychism'
http://web.gc.cuny.edu/philosophy/people/strawson/rmwpep.pdf

The conclusion - that consciousness is a basic _property_ of matter
(say, like charge or mass) dissolves the mind-body duality in a most
effective way.

It also hails well for strong AI: at the moment is has sufficiently
complex structure and dynamics (not the puny silicon stuff of nowadays,
but the Blue Gene/L thing is a first step) it _will_ be conscious
automatically.

Also, animals are naturally conscious - the level of consciousness
depends on the complexity of the material structure, of course.

Regards,
Günther



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