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Article 6714 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: what is consciousness for?
Message-ID: <1992Aug27.195009.21453@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Date: 27 Aug 92 19:50:09 GMT
References: <1992Aug25.141057.19246@mp.cs.niu.edu> <Btn9H3.2ns@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca>
Organization: Northern Illinois University
Lines: 32

In article <Btn9H3.2ns@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca> cpshelle@logos.uwaterloo.ca (cameron shelley) writes:
>rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:

>> No, that was not my meaning.  Language is far more important to us than
>> mere communication.
>> [...]
>>                  I believe we would have almost no memory recall ability
>> if it were not for this phenomenon.

>Possibly not, but having studied communication a little, I can't
>concieve of it as "mere".

In the most general sense of communication, no it is not mere.  If you
look a computer as a network communicating information between memory
cells, adders, multipliers, comparators, etc, you realize that
communication is vital in the production of intelligence.

>                                I would be interested if your theory
>could be tested empirically.

There are certain natural experiments.  From time to time a child is
born deaf, and his parents do not recognize the problem, so there is no
attempt to provide alternatives such as sign language or lip reading.
It is my understanding that in such children there is little normal
memory of events preceding the time that their problem is eventually
recognized and they do acquire language.

Of course there is an alternative interpretation - namely that the lack
of language cause abnormal brain development, and the memory problems
result from the abnormal development rather than from a dependence of
memory on language.  I know of no way of distinguishing between these
interpretations.


