Re:If you REALLY want to know yourself,...
on
Mapping the Mind
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· Score: 1
...if you can somehow magicly be conscious without a brain.
It is important, I believe, that consciousness be associated with what it is conscious of. It is certainly impossible that there is brain-conscious without a brain, but it is plausible that there could be consciousness of something else.
For example, Fred has a "Fred's brain" consciousness, in that Fred's brain is aware of itself. Bill similarly has a "Bill's brain" consciousness. It is possible that my cat Fluffy has a "Fluffy's brain" consciousness. Fluffy isn't likely to tell me "I think, therefore I am", because a cat is too stupid to think such thoughts, but there is no reason to discount the possibility that Fluffy is just as conscious of its own cat-brain thoughts as I am of my human-brain thoughts.
If this is plausible, it is similarly plausible that even a tree has its own tree-consciousness, and a rock may have its own rock-consciousness. A rock doesn't have a whole lot to be conscious of, which makes this claim seem ludicrous, but consider that an individual neuron doesn't have a whole lot to be conscious of either. However, grouped together, they apparantly do.
Because we're humans, we tend to associate consciousness with thinking about consciousness, as that's what we, as humans, are able to be conscious of.
Slashdot Mirror
...if you can somehow magicly be conscious without a brain.
It is important, I believe, that consciousness be associated with what it is conscious of. It is certainly impossible that there is brain-conscious without a brain, but it is plausible that there could be consciousness of something else.
For example, Fred has a "Fred's brain" consciousness, in that Fred's brain is aware of itself. Bill similarly has a "Bill's brain" consciousness. It is possible that my cat Fluffy has a "Fluffy's brain" consciousness. Fluffy isn't likely to tell me "I think, therefore I am", because a cat is too stupid to think such thoughts, but there is no reason to discount the possibility that Fluffy is just as conscious of its own cat-brain thoughts as I am of my human-brain thoughts.
If this is plausible, it is similarly plausible that even a tree has its own tree-consciousness, and a rock may have its own rock-consciousness. A rock doesn't have a whole lot to be conscious of, which makes this claim seem ludicrous, but consider that an individual neuron doesn't have a whole lot to be conscious of either. However, grouped together, they apparantly do.
Because we're humans, we tend to associate consciousness with thinking about consciousness, as that's what we, as humans, are able to be conscious of.