Consciousness

[Trocisp]

I didn't really know where to put this...

I've seen all over, a lot of times, that we can't explain consciousness, self awareness, sentience, etc, and that makes it unique.

How? Why?

I don't get it? Why is it special? What makes it unique?

[Hornblower]

I didn't really know where to put this...

I've seen all over, a lot of times, that we can't explain consciousness, self awareness, sentience, etc, and that makes it unique.

How? Why?

I don't get it? Why is it special? What makes it unique?

Can you provide some references that have been "seen all over"?

[Trocisp]

Are you saying that you don't often see consciousness referred to as special?

The majority of the time people talk about biology (the brain, particularly,) they throw something like that in there.

[Lepton]

Are you saying that you don't often see consciousness referred to as special?

The majority of the time people talk about biology (the brain, particularly,) they throw something like that in there.

No he isn't saying that at all. He is however asking for references. That is my reading of

Can you provide some references that have been "seen all over"?

[ginnie]

I didn't really know where to put this...

I've seen all over, a lot of times, that we can't explain consciousness, self awareness, sentience, etc, and that makes it unique.

How? Why?

I don't get it? Why is it special? What makes it unique?

Many people explain it - just talk to a philosopher or a minister/priest/pastor.

[Ronald Brak]

What is consciousness? When I type in define: consciousness into google I get the following:

Consciousness is regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, and the ability to perceive the relationship ...

Now how are you going to prove that a human (or whatever) has subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience and so on? As far as I am aware, you can't. There is no way to prove that say your cousin Mike is either conscious or an unaware zombie. Since we can't show that consciousness exists, trying to decide whether or not it is unique is pretty stupid.

[ginnie]

Even if people are in comatose, we don't know the extent of their conciousness - whether they are aware of their surroundings or are thinking.

[Neverfly]

Consciousness is the complex product of chemical and electrical interactions within the brain.
Human or otherwise.

[ginnie]

Consciousness is the complex product of chemical and electrical interactions within the brain.
Human or otherwise.

What about self awareness? How does that fit in?

Are animals, other than people, "self aware"?
Actually, what does that mean anyway - self aware. Does it mean we know who we are, where we came from, or going to, or what we've learned, done and will do or that we have goals, responsibilities and passions - OR - can it just mean, " Me cold. Me hungry. Find animal. Eat. "

[Whirlpool]

Self- aware can be understand as knowing what is happening around , so consciousness is self-awareness.

[ginnie]

Self- aware can be understand as knowing what is happening around , so consciousness is self-awareness.

So animals have self awareness then. I accept that. They are probably a lot more aware than we know. Which makes me shudder even more thinking about the goings on in a slaughterhouse.

[Neverfly]

What about self awareness? How does that fit in?

Are animals, other than people, "self aware"?
Actually, what does that mean anyway - self aware. Does it mean we know who we are, where we came from, or going to, or what we've learned, done and will do or that we have goals, responsibilities and passions - OR - can it just mean, " Me cold. Me hungry. Find animal. Eat. "

Self aware simple means to be aware that you exist, aware of what you are (even on a basic level), capable of introspection.
Studies demonstrate traits of self awareness in many animals- but not spiders.

[Whirlpool]

What about self awareness? How does that fit in?

Are animals, other than people, "self aware"?
Actually, what does that mean anyway - self aware. Does it mean we know who we are, where we came from, or going to, or what we've learned, done and will do or that we have goals, responsibilities and passions - OR - can it just mean, " Me cold. Me hungry. Find animal. Eat. "

In my opinion , I don't think Animals have the same level of Intelligence as Humans in terms of self-awareness.
Animals are aware that they need to Survive, Eat, Reproduce , I don't think, animals conscious about why they are naked, and needed to make their food more tasteful by cooking or mixing it with other food they eat in their surroundings.

And this is only my opinion.

[ginnie]

Self aware simple means to be aware that you exist, aware of what you are (even on a basic level), capable of introspection.
Studies demonstrate traits of self awareness in many animals- but not spiders.

Maybe spiders are too, but we don't know how to do a proper test for that.

[Neverfly]

Maybe spiders are too, but we don't know how to do a proper test for that.

Ah... but perhaps it is YOU that is the Hippy spider...

[toothdust]

Consciousness is totally subjective. We look down at animals as less conscious than us, which they are in terms of self awareness, which makes it easy to accept that there are beings far beyond us. I think it is very limiting to say that consciousness is "only" an chemical reaction that produces awareness.

What I find amazing is that atoms have assembled themselves in beings capable of pondering their own existence.

[Ken G]

In the above, the issue has been raised as to whether or not consciousness is something that science can understand. I think it is the wrong approach to first come up with a concept, and then try to find ways to get science to address that concept. It works much better to first look at what science can address, and see what you learn from it. Then a concept of "consciousness" can emerge from what science has learned. We will have a vocabulary that is founded in science from the outset to use in the scientific investigation of what is being called consciousness. So far, some progress has been made there in the cognitive sciences, involving neuro-physiology and psychology. Start there, rather than pop-sci definitions.

[novaderrik]

there is only one guy that can answer these questions- he lives alone in a tiny hut on the top of one of the highest mountains in Nepal.
of course, there are some that are too lazy or poor to go to Nepal to climb the mountain to ask the guy the big questions, so they just head to the deserts on the American southwest and eat a special cactus that also gives them some of the answers..

[ginnie]

there is only one guy that can answer these questions- he lives alone in a tiny hut on the top of one of the highest mountains in Nepal.
of course, there are some that are too lazy or poor to go to Nepal to climb the mountain to ask the guy the big questions, so they just head to the deserts on the American southwest and eat a special cactus that also gives them some of the answers..

The downside though is that those answers only last for a few hours.

[toothdust]

Unless of course you have any sort of memory capabilities, and spend the required time reflecting upon them, the answers can last forever If time is infinite, that makes just a single moment infinite in and of itself.

[Neverfly]

Unless of course you have any sort of memory capabilities, and spend the required time reflecting upon them, the answers can last forever If time is infinite, that makes just a single moment infinite in and of itself.

Not much consolation at 97 years old.