From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!watserv2.uwaterloo.ca!watdragon.uwaterloo.ca!logos.uwaterloo.ca!cpshelle Mon Aug 24 15:41:13 EDT 1992
Article 6647 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: cpshelle@logos.uwaterloo.ca (cameron shelley)
Subject: Re: what is consciousness for?
Message-ID: <Bt8EJt.4pG@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca>
Sender: news@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (USENET News System)
Organization: University of Waterloo
References: <1992Aug18.161151.12316@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 12:55:04 GMT

rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:
> In article <Bt6K1u.Iyr@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca> cpshelle@logos.uwaterloo.ca (cameron shelley) writes:
> >
> >This reminds me of a theory of culture I learned in anthropology as an
> >undergrad.  One explanation of the function of culture is that it
> >allows for adaptation to environment on a more rapid basis than
> >genetic change.
> 
> >What does this have to do with consciousness?  Consciousness seems
> >necessary to make culture work.  (In some sense, culture and genetics
> 
> While I agree with this assessment of culture, I would hesitate to say
> that it can be used as an explanation of consciousness.  Certainly you
> need consciousness for culture to work.  But in my view, consciousness
> of some degree exists in many other animals (perhaps all mammals, for
> example), and culture has little significance to most of these.  It
> stretches credulity to suggest that the blind mechanisms of evolution
> had so much forsight as to create something for purposes that would
> eventually show up with the appearance of homo sapiens.

Well, if you allow consciousness to exist in degrees, I don't see why
culture shouldn't be seen similarly.  Observation of gorillas and
other simians in the wild seems to show they communicate learned
behaviour across generations, though not at the same level as humans. 
And I would be the last person to tell `Mother Nature' how to run her
business.  

[From a later posting by Neil]
>Actually, it is my suspicion that consciousness is there to increase
>the speed of learning.

This then demands an answer to "what is rapid learning good for"?  As
I remarked in my original posting, both genetic evolution and culture
can be considered forms of communication, from generation to
generation.  Genetic `learning', as you rightly point out, is
randomized and reinforced by environmental constraints.  Cultural
learning, on the other hand, has to be rapid, given the short lifespan
of each individual who must learn it to transmit it.  As you remark,
consciousness would be an advantage in this system if it sped up the
acquisition of learned behaviour. 

</dev/cam
--
      Cameron Shelley        |"In the beginning, there was nothing.  Then
cpshelle@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca | God said `Let there be light', and there
    Davis Centre Rm 2136     | was still nothing, but youse could see it."
 Phone (519) 885-1211 x3390  | --Dave Thomas, SCTV:_Sunrise Semester_


