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From: David E. Weldon, Ph.D. <David.E.Weldon@DaytonOH.ATTGIS.COM>
Subject: Re: Is CONSCIOUSNESS continuous? discrete? quantized?
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Date: Fri, 31 Mar 1995 06:23:00 GMT
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@==========b a rudgers, 3/29/95==========
@
@In article <3lck1o$ioi@scorpio.develop.bsis.com> 
@Kimbal.Welch@bsis.com (Kimbal Welch) writes:
@>However, you can get some useful classification tools by
@>examining the external behavior differences between various
@>creatures with varying level of consciousness. This does not
@>mean you are really measuring consciousness. It is only a tool,
@>and a crude approximation. 
@
@It seems to me that we cannot examine "the external behavior
@differences between various creatures with varying level of
@consciousness", without first determining the level of
@consciousness of the creatures to be compared.  Furthermore,
@whatever means we use for determining the "level of
@consciousness" must not entail behavior if we wish to avoid
@circularity.

We really need to get a grip on our terms here.  Generally, "consciousness"
refers to whether you are currently responding to your environment; that is,
it is contrasted with "unconsciousness" which is further distinguished from
"sleep" or "daydreaming."  For example, to be conscious is to not be comatose.
 What you are referring to is "awareness" and most probably, "self-awareness";
i.e., that most peculiar state most often, though not always, found in humans
that is so strongly felt and percieved by the self-aware that they insist on
several self-referencing terms including "i," "me," "myself," "mine," etc.

Once we have established what is to be measured, then we can ask the tougher
question, "how then shall we measure it?"  If it is awareness or awareness of
self that you wish to measure, then the job is difficult, but
straight-forward.  I recommend highly the "mirror test."
@
@I do not believe that consciousness is quantifiable.  But I am
@not saying that things upon which we can put quantitative
@measures are not related to consciousness.  Consider the case
@when we have a conscious experience of red; the redness may 
@be
@correlated with a quantifiable frequency of light and perhaps
@even a quantification of the intensity of the light, but this
@does not and cannot describe the character of our conscious
@experience.  The character of our conscious experience in this
@case may be in part determined by our past experience, by our
@expectations, or by the presence or absence of other sensory
@inputs.

You are confusing the rules of empirical measurement with the definition of a
concept.  Define carefully what you mean by a conscious experience.  After you
have done so, the empirical measures that will test for the presence or
absence of the construct should occur to you.  That is, if the conscious
experience of "red" means nothing more than a response to the hue, saturation,
and brightness of an entity, then the measures you give above are adequate. 
If "red" as a conscious experience means more than this to you, then it is
incumbant on you to define and describe this "moreness."  It is unacceptable
to say, "it is undefinable."



