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From: ababian@cruzio.com (andrew babian)
Subject: Re: What is consciousness? The biology of our experienced inner life.
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In article <3327c52b.10005192@news1.ns.sympatico.ca>, "R. Alan Squire" <rasquire@ns.sympatico.ca> (R. Alan Squire) says:
>
>Is there a continuum of emotions?  Is the combination of two or
>more emotions a different emotion?  Or is it just a mix.  Some

emotions come from quite a complex mix and iteraction.  given any 
particular situation,  all the parts have there own emotional reactions
that interplay,  and there is also the input from the more conscious
control mechanisms.

>"Fascinating!" or Data utters, "Curious!"  These supposedly
>emotionless beings are the product of the human imagination --
>one that seemingly doesn't accept fascination and curiousity as
>emotional experiences.

There is a theory that people always make emotional decisions right off 
(intuition), which then can provide an initial bias for a rational 
decision.  maybe the reasoned thinking is just rationalization or maybe
it really checks the result from intuition.  The science fiction hope is
that it might be possible to completely bypass the intuition step (which
at this point we know very little about) that sometimes gets in the way,
and replace it with a totally logical method of thinking.  in _star trek_
vulcans somehow suppress intuition,  and data supposedly works without it
by nature.  Its still a question how this might be possible,  since we
don't really understand all the difficulties in thinking.  OK.,  assuming
we no longer use emotion-based intuition,  it still could be possible to 
make a logical evaluation of a situation as "fascinating" or "curious"
for some type of communicative purpose.  so they could decide it was
time for an exclamation and that one of those was appropriate, but
it wasn't from a feeling like people have. just so you have a way 
to think about it.


>
>I know, I know: the human brain is a collection of neurons --
>processing nodes if you will -- that work on principles not
>terribly dissimilar from that of the computer's AND or OR

the truth is we don't know how neurons work completely.  and
computer gates don't modify themselves or sprout new attachments.

>1) Do you accept the fact that *experience* is a unique aspect
>   of consciousness -- different from simply attending to
>   something or remembering it?

who knows what we will call things we we have a good explanation

>2) Do you *truly* believe that there is even the slightest
>   possibility that your PC, no matter how complex, is
>   *experiencing* (not just processing) something right now?

when we know better what those things mean,  a question like that will
be a lot clearer.

