The Motley Fool Discussion Boards

Previous Page

Religion & Culture / Creation vs. Evolution


Subject:  Re: Consciousness and its relationship to Evolut Date:  6/6/2001  6:07 PM
Author:  xebec Number:  1427 of 25071

Something has to experience conciousness: it is a subjective quality. Hence whatever runs the set of programs (into my way of thinking) with the appropriate input and output will experience conciousness.

Now we are back to consciousness being a quality existing in the mind. I hope we can figure out mind before we go on to its qualities (or is it states, or is it a property? A red folding chair has the property of being red, but may have the states of being folded or unfolded. I need a little more precision or else I lose the thread.

And whatever runs the programs .. will experience consciousness. But we've got that mind thing again. Does everything have a mind which may burst forth into consciousness if it is capable of, and happens to, run the appropriate programs?

Hence a scientific description of conciousness is of necessity a detailed elaboration of the processes that are necessary and sufficient to be up and running while the organism in question is experiancing conciousness.

Are these processes like UNIX processes? And consciousness is something which can be experienced? Is it this mind that you keep referencing indirectly that is doing the experiencing? Experiencing: 'that which is seen, felt, or lived through'. Does the organism then sense consciousness like it sees something?