RE: Theory number 3.
October 28, 2012 at 2:09 pm
(This post was last modified: October 28, 2012 at 2:15 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
What paradox?
That "one step" would be an arbitrary limit established by your definition of consciousness(whatever that may be) - not indicative of whether or not evolutionary process could arrive there.
Imagine that my definition of consciousness was "three pennies in hand"
Imagine that my definition of evolution was "adding a single penny"
I start with an empty hand. I add a penny. Still not conscious. I add another penny, 2 now, still not conscious. I add another penny, 3, voila, conscious (as per my definition). Adding a penny didn't meet the criteria for consciousness the first or second time, so it isn't really adding the penny that meets the criteria, but the third time I added the penny was the charm.
Now, the reason I chose pennies for my little story (and 3 no less) is this. If each penny were an attribute, no single one of those pennies could grant an organism "consciousness" (at least not by our definition), but three could, and we could get three pennies by a short sequence of "adding pennies". That final step is only important as it is the culmination of whatever happened before it (and even then only because we have decided to place the finish line there). Now, as I've said, I think consciousness only required a single penny (the very first penny), but I'm assuming that you require more than 1. I'm wondering what those pennies are. If you had even a general idea of what they were I could (at the very least) point you in the direction of how evolutionary biology explains them.
That "one step" would be an arbitrary limit established by your definition of consciousness(whatever that may be) - not indicative of whether or not evolutionary process could arrive there.
Imagine that my definition of consciousness was "three pennies in hand"
Imagine that my definition of evolution was "adding a single penny"
I start with an empty hand. I add a penny. Still not conscious. I add another penny, 2 now, still not conscious. I add another penny, 3, voila, conscious (as per my definition). Adding a penny didn't meet the criteria for consciousness the first or second time, so it isn't really adding the penny that meets the criteria, but the third time I added the penny was the charm.
Now, the reason I chose pennies for my little story (and 3 no less) is this. If each penny were an attribute, no single one of those pennies could grant an organism "consciousness" (at least not by our definition), but three could, and we could get three pennies by a short sequence of "adding pennies". That final step is only important as it is the culmination of whatever happened before it (and even then only because we have decided to place the finish line there). Now, as I've said, I think consciousness only required a single penny (the very first penny), but I'm assuming that you require more than 1. I'm wondering what those pennies are. If you had even a general idea of what they were I could (at the very least) point you in the direction of how evolutionary biology explains them.
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