Newsgroups: comp.ai.alife,comp.ai.philosophy,comp.ai,alt.consciousness
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!fs7.ece.cmu.edu!kinky.eng.gtefsd.com!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!vlsi_lib
From: vlsi_lib@netcom.com (Gerard Malecki)
Subject: Re: Thought Question
Message-ID: <vlsi_libD2Bpxq.C9r@netcom.com>
Organization: VLSI Libraries Incorporated
References: <3f23q4$oc4@ixnews1.ix.netcom.com> <1995Jan12.184559.2530@galileo.cc.rochester.edu> <3f4k1d$8ae@news.u.washington.edu>
Date: Fri, 13 Jan 1995 03:05:49 GMT
Lines: 29
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.ai.alife:1743 comp.ai.philosophy:24577 comp.ai:26408

In article <3f4k1d$8ae@news.u.washington.edu> forbis@cac.washington.edu (Gary Forbis ) writes:
>In article <1995Jan12.184559.2530@galileo.cc.rochester.edu>, stevens@prodigal.psych.rochester.edu (Greg Stevens) writes:
>
>{Text deleted]
>
>|> While it is an interesting thought experiment, and brings up the point that
>|> there is no evolutionary benefit to consciousness (as natural selection acts
>|> on behaviors not thoughts), it is assuming that organisms and responsiveness
>|> CAN arise without subjective perception.  People say, "Well, I can imagine
>|> an organism with no subjectivity but still behaving as I do..." but is
>|> it possible?

What are living beings made of? Atoms. What do atoms want to do? Get into
stable configurations, presumably. If they can find bliss in forming 
simple, stable structures like methane, why should they bother evolving
into more and more complex structures (a.k.a. life)? After all, even 
when one animal eats another, the atoms of the prey have nothing to lose
(they quickly form new chemical bonds within the predator). So are such
things as suffering of the prey just imagined? As you have indicated,
consciousness is not necessary for survival (plants, even the insectivorous
ones, for example). Maybe there is such a thing as quanta of consciousness
residing in each atom. And each atom wants to be part of a complex organism
rather than a simple one. And the consciousness of the whole organism is
probably the collecive efforts of all the individual atoms (am I beginning
to sound like Penrose here?). Consciousness-merging is an established fact
in neurology, mainly through experiments involving the corpus callosum.

Shankar Ramakrishnan
shankar@vlibs.com
