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Article 7416 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: forbis@stein.u.washington.edu (Gary Forbis)
Subject: Re: We've Been Tricked- consciousness
Message-ID: <1992Oct28.015833.1802@u.washington.edu>
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References: <BwpHGD.EMy@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> <1316@tdat.teradata.COM> <Bwsz2F.68J@nic.umass.edu>
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1992 01:58:33 GMT
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In article <Bwsz2F.68J@nic.umass.edu> danco@titan.ucc.umass.edu (DANIEL F COHEN) writes:
>In article <1316@tdat.teradata.COM> swf@tdat.teradata.com (Stanley Friesen) writes:
>How can apperception come in degrees?  It seems to me that one is either
>aware of one's existence as a perceiving entity, or one is not -- two
>possible states with a clear division between them.
>
>I can't conceive of any such thing as partial self-awareness. It might be 
>argued that an entity might not be fully self-aware in that he does not
>know and understand every aspect of his consciousness (as is certainly
>the case with human beings), or that he is mistaken as to the nature of
>his own consciousness (as is also very likely the case with humans), but, 
>in either case, he is still self-aware.

I wonder about the robotic arm whose position is controled by a computer
containing a vision system.  The system recognizes the thing to be grasps
and the thing that will do the grasping.  The system sends signals to the
robotic arm which causes the arm to grasp the object.  Does the computer
recognize the robotic arm as part of the "self"?

Does a human necessarily recognize the connection between the desire and
the fullfilment of that desire?  I really don't know how I cause my arm
to move yet I recognize the relationship between my desire to move my
arm in certain ways and my arms movement in those ways.  I think I clasify
my arm as "my arm" because of this recognize correlation.

>Dan Cohen
>danco@philos.umass.edu
>danco@titan.ucc.umass.edu

--gary forbis@u.washington.edu


