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From: kovsky@netcom.com (Bob Kovsky)
Subject: Re: Is CONSCIOUSNESS continuous? discrete? quantized?
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Date: Tue, 28 Feb 1995 17:59:31 GMT
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In the previous article in this thread, 
Greg Stevens quoted from my penultimate message and wrote:
>
>>	When I pay attention to what I am doing:
>>	1.  I get in fewer auto accidents;
>>	2.  My programs have fewer bugs;
>>	3.  I don't irritate other people so much.
>
>
>Further, I can not report on how useful consciousness is compared to
>not-consciousness based just on me experience, because I am not and
>have never been a non-conscious mechanistic entity (that I know of,
>anyway :-).  However, in my subjective experience, I have seen non-
>conscious machines approach with increasing accuracy through time
>the kinds of efficiency we used to only associate with consciousness.
>Not referring to theories, but only to my "common sense," I don't see
>why this improvement couldn't be extended indefinitely.

	There are gradations in the involvement of consciousness in 
activities, such as whether consciousness is active (as when one is 
programming) or passive (as when listening to another person); or 
foreground (programming again) or background (often while driving).  My 
experience is:  the more consciousness, the more advantage.

	Your "subjective experience ...[that] non-conscious machines 
approach ... the kinds of efficiency we used to only associated with 
consciousness" has an important qualification.  The efficiency and the 
efficacy are the products of the conscious minds of the programmer and 
hardware designer.  The machine multiplies the effects of their 
consciousness, but its requirements also impose limitations on what they 
can accomplish.



-- 

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    Bob Kovsky          |  A Natural Science of Freedom 
    kovsky@netcom.com   |  Materials available by anonymous ftp
                        |  At ftp.netcom.com/pub/fr/freedom
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