From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!ames!haven.umd.edu!uunet!mcsun!inesc.inesc.pt!eniac.inesc.pt!xarax Sat Oct 24 20:44:40 EDT 1992
Article 7356 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!ames!haven.umd.edu!uunet!mcsun!inesc.inesc.pt!eniac.inesc.pt!xarax
>From: xarax@eniac.inesc.pt (Luis Antunes)
Subject: Re: Simulated Brain
Message-ID: <1992Oct21.161515.7529@inesc.pt>
Sender: usenet@inesc.pt (USENET News System)
Nntp-Posting-Host: eniac.inesc.pt
Organization: INESC - Inst. Eng. Sistemas e Computadores, LISBOA. PORTUGAL.
References: <1992Oct19.133435.18702@klaava.Helsinki.FI> <BwGKx3.5oJ@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> <1992Oct21.101000.1131@klaava.Helsinki.FI>
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1992 16:15:15 GMT
Lines: 25

>
>Please note the distinction between the genealogy of conscioussness and
>factors necessary for its upkeep.  When you bring up the Robinson Crusoe
>counter-example to my definition, you should keep it mind that sensory
>stimuli and a more or less healthy childhood of interaction with fellow
>human beings went into making you what you are today.  Yes, you can take
>them away afterwards but this does not change the fact that they were
>instrumental in forming you as a conscious being.  I think that a child
>deprived of all sensory stimuli (who `grew up in a barrel' as they say
>in Finland) would fail to achieve a full, healthy conscious state on par
>with other people.  An explanation of consciousness must take these
>historical elements into consideration.  It might even be necessary to go
>further, and claim that a conscious being must have a certain kind of
>evolutionary background, but this appears open.
>
>-- 
>Marko Amnell
>amnell@klaava.helsinki.fi
>Graduate Student in Philosophy

First we were talking about consciousness now you talk about "full,
healthy conscious state"... Let's be careful. If the child has an
unhealthy conscious state then it certainly has a consciuous state...




