Newsgroups: sci.skeptic,alt.consciousness,comp.ai.philosophy,sci.philosophy.meta,rec.arts.books
From: books@michaels.demon.co.uk (Rodney York)
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!nntp.club.cc.cmu.edu!miner.usbm.gov!rsg1.er.usgs.gov!stc06.CTD.ORNL.GOV!cs.utk.edu!emory!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!demon!michaels.demon.co.uk!books
Subject: Re: Penrose and Searle (was Re: Roger Penrose's fixed ideas)
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Date: Wed, 7 Dec 1994 17:32:32 +0000
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A brief comment on the whole topic of consciousness:

A cat, when faced with a mirror, will first be fooled into treating the image
as another cat. On investigation, it will discover it's not, and will then
ignore the mirror.

A chimpanzee will quickly learn that the image corresponds to itself, and will
use it to look at itself.

(If I'm wrong about cats, there are other animals for which the above holds
true.)

The cat's brain is simply not capable of handling certain concepts that the
chimpanzee can handle.

I also remember (was it from work quoted by Gombrich?) that if newborn kittens
are not presented with any straight lines in sight for a certain time, their
sight develops in a way which renders them incapable of seeing straight lines.

We tend to regard ourselves as the lords of creation, capable of understanding
anything.

There may well be areas and concepts (which may be open, in principle, to some
higher intelligences) which we humans are physiologically not capable of
compassing.

And there could be areas of perception (and thought?) which do not develop
without stimuli which are, in fact, absent from our world.

Best wishes,
Rodney York
The Online Bookshop
