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Article 2447 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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cs.niu.edu!rickert
>From: rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Ignore Searle and be happier
Message-ID: <1991Dec30.203517.30168@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Date: 30 Dec 91 20:35:17 GMT
References: <1991Dec30.185605.23355@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> <1991Dec30.193339.28438@mp.cs.niu.edu> <1991Dec30.194943.25819@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
Organization: Northern Illinois University
Lines: 28

In article <1991Dec30.194943.25819@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> chalmers@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (David Chalmers) writes:
>In article <1991Dec30.193339.28438@mp.cs.niu.edu> rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:
>
>> What is implausible about it?
>>
>> Surely a cat or a dog has a much less intense experience of consciousness
>>than a human.  Surely a fish has a far far less intense consciousness, if
>>it has any consciousness at all.
>
>As I said in the last posting, it's reasonable for degree of consciousness
>to vary when functional organization is allowed to vary.  It seems less
>plausible that degree of consciousness could vary when functional
>organization is held fixed.

 Then it seems to me you are saying that is that it is reasonable for the
size of a heap of sand to vary when the amount of sand and/or the shape
factor of the heap varies, but it is not reasonable for the size of the
heap to vary when the volume and shape are held fixed.

 I don't disagree with this.  But I don't see that it gets you anywhere
either.


-- 
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  Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science               <rickert@cs.niu.edu>
  Northern Illinois Univ.
  DeKalb, IL 60115                                   +1-815-753-6940


