From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ncar!noao!amethyst!organpipe.uug.arizona.edu!organpipe.uug.arizona.edu!bill Fri Sep  4 09:41:35 EDT 1992
Article 6756 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: bill@nsma.arizona.edu (Bill Skaggs)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: what is consciousness for?
Message-ID: <BILL.92Sep1144426@ca3.nsma.arizona.edu>
Date: 1 Sep 92 21:44:26 GMT
References: <1992Aug13.025506.2404@news.media.mit.edu> <1992Aug17.171723.5599@spss.com>
	<iordonez.715366473@academ01>
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In-Reply-To: iordonez@academ01.mty.itesm.mx's message of 1 Sep 92 16: 54:33 GMT

minsky@media.mit.edu (Marvin Minsky) writes:

   > Then what might be the functions and the organs of what we call 
   > consciousness?  

The word "consciousness" is used in such a diversity of ways that it
is unreasonable to expect a single, concise answer to this question.

To a physician, consciousness is the state of not being asleep,
comatose, or dead.  The function of this kind of consciousness is
pretty clear:  if every human lacked it, humanity would not long
survive. 

I believe that one central notion of consciousness is (a) *having a
mental representation of the current state of the world*.  The
function of this kind of consciousness is less obvious, because many
of the things that could be done with a representation of the world
could also, in principle, be done by (so to speak) using the world as
a representation of itself.  The value of an internal representation
is to maintain information not immediately accessible to the senses,
and to make possible computations that could not be done using the
world itself.

A second, equally central, notion is (b) *being able to talk about
something*.  I am conscious of a pain in my head if, when asked
whether my head hurts, I say "yes".  This kind of consciousness is
intimately connected with language, and its value lies in
communication and in the structure that language confers on thought
and memory.

	-- Bill


