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From: stevens@prodigal.psych.rochester.edu (Greg Stevens)
Subject: Re: Thought Question
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In <1995Jan17.174819.14582@walter.cray.com> mwd@cray.com (Mark Dalton) writes:

>	If you look at a flies nerve system it is quite complex, and they
>have a brain.  But are they self-aware? or do they just function on mechanical
>decisions, or chemotaxis?

Self-awareness is one thing, but I will side-step it with applying the same 
question about flies to consciousness.  If you like, wee can discuss whether
self-awareness is requisit for consciousness, which I think it is not. 
But with my understanding of consciousness, I don't see any reason to think
the fly is NOT conscious.  Would you have any behavioral evidence that ti is 
not?  It knows how to survive, it knows how to react to certain stimuli.
It "knows" a lot, certainly in the same sense of Gregory Bateson's statement
"Sequoias know how to resist forest fires," and acts accordingly.  That is
all you observe in people to conclude that THEY are conscious.

Greg Stevens

stevens@prodigal.psych.rochester.edu

