From: Randall Randall (randall@randallsquared.com)
Date: Sun Dec 06 2009 - 18:13:54 MST
On Sun, 2009-12-06 at 14:46 -0800, Matt Mahoney wrote:
>
> Thomas Buckner wrote:
> > The P3 response (a marker is absent in coma patients.
>
> Again, by "consciousness" I am not referring to the observable
> aspects, such as being awake vs. asleep. The word has more than one
> meaning, which causes confusion. What I claim doesn't exist is qualia,
> the aspect of having experience that is different from just writing
> into your brain's memory.
This is not what most people use "consciousness" to mean. In
particular, most people on this list would probably reject the
hypothesis that consciousness involves something non-physical, as
specified here.
> 2. Would it be unethical (equivalent to murder) to stop the program
> and delete it?
> 1. Is the program "you"? If you were killed, would you continue to
> have experience as this program?
> Most people would give answers that indicate a belief in qualia and
> that the program is a zombie. Do you?
You're conflating "there is a physical process that produces what we
call consciousness" with "there is a non-physical aspect to
consciousness". These are very different assertions, though they may
give similar answers to this question.
-- Randall
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