From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!sdd.hp.com!wupost!kuhub.cc.ukans.edu!spssig.spss.com!markrose Mon Aug 24 15:40:56 EDT 1992
Article 6628 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: markrose@spss.com (Mark Rosenfelder)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: what is consciousness for?
Message-ID: <1992Aug17.171723.5599@spss.com>
Date: 17 Aug 92 17:17:23 GMT
References: <1992Aug13.025506.2404@news.media.mit.edu>
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In article <1992Aug13.025506.2404@news.media.mit.edu> minsky@media.mit.edu (Marvin Minsky) writes:
>Then what might be the functions and the organs of what we call
>consciousness?  

I find this a very interesting question: what is consciousness for?
Why did nature bother to evolve it?  What can't be done without it?

>	We humans do not possess much consciousness.
>	That is, we have very little natural ability to sense
>	what happens within and outside ourselves.

Also very interesting; but this should make the question a bit easier.
We don't have a generalized ability to inspect everything our bodies and
brains are doing; we have access to our current perceptions, emotions,
short-term memory, some of our decision-making, memories triggered by
any of the above.  It should be easier to find the purpose of a facility
so specific...

I would hazard a guess that consciousness allows us to observe and therefore
change our own behavior; in effect it expands the range of objects we can
manipulate to include ourselves.


