(November 29, 2012 at 4:44 am)Tiberius Wrote: It all depends on what consciousness actually is. If it is just the result of chemical reactions in the brain, there are no reasons why this same result could not be achieved artificially by a complex computer.
If consciousness is more than that, it may well be impossible.
As you are someone who seems to know a fair bit about programming I appreciate hearing your views on this. I agree in that I know I don't know exactly what consciousness is apart from my naive intuitions as a hypothetically conscious person.
(November 29, 2012 at 4:44 am)Tiberius Wrote: I'm not a believer in "consciousness" or "free will". Both are most likely illusions. We have consciousness only in the form that we are aware of our actions after being forced into performing them.
I'm not interested in discussing free will but I'm obviously interested as hell in discussing consciousness. Unlike yourself I do think there is something we mean by consciousness even though it is hard to distil what that is exactly. So I believe in it and have intuitions up the kazoo regarding what consciousness may involve. Sometimes I am moved by the admonition that goes something like "that which cannot be said plainly should be passed over in silence" but obviously that is not stopping me here.
One intuition I have about consciousness as it exists in us is that our conscious minds are only a part of our greater organism and consciousness. What we call 'the unconscious' does not lack consciousness, we're just in the dark where its workings are concerned. It isn't that we aren't that. It is rather that we are only a part of that. I think it is the fact that all volition stems from the biology of our greater organism, of which our conscious mind is only one manifestation, that gives rise to the free will conundrum.
This McGilchrist TED talk while entirely speculative, lays out what I find is a coherent theory why and how our conscious and unconscious minds are able to cohabitate and what the proper roll of each may be. (No mention of free will by the way.)
http://www.ted.com/talks/iain_mcgilchris...brain.html
