Opening this conversation up. What do you think (if anything) would happen to us behaviorally if the consciousness knob got turned down to zero? Would we be fully functional 'zombies'? In other words, is consciousness epiphenomenal, or does it play a causal role in our behavior?https://twitter.com/cognazor/status/1092649900725149697 …
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Replying to @cognazor
The question seems confused. What do you mean by consciousness? How would one go about turning the knob down?
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Replying to @imhinesmi
It's a thought experiment by
@nathan_k in order to make the argument that consciousness is a byproduct of evolution, but not strictly necessary in a behavioral sense (e.g., the organism feels heat and via chemical reaction moves hand away, but qualia isn't necessary)1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Okay then,
@nathan_k, what do you mean by "consciousness"? My impression is that consciousness is what the biochemical processes feel like as they operate. We are the algorithm. Reducing consciousness -> stopping the algorithm, or moving to a different one.2 replies 0 retweets 4 likes -
Replying to @imhinesmi @cognazor
I'm using "consciousness" the way Thomas Nagel uses it. He would say, "it is like something to be me". Whatever you would lose if you traded places with a rock (presumably, lol)
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I'm saying an algorithm doesn't need to feel like anything. If you step through your program with a debugger, you do so because you want to observe the inner workings of its behaviour. But you're not forced to step through a debugger.
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The program has to go step-by-step, though. And we're the program in this hypothetical.
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Replying to @imhinesmi @cognazor
Nathan⒦ Retweeted ian hines
Threading this back in. Yes, behaviour would be lost trading with a rock, but so would your arms and legs and your groovy beard, and those aren't consciousness. I probably should have said, "as a matter of experience" https://mobile.twitter.com/imhinesmi/status/1092874985725665280 … 1/2
Nathan⒦ added,
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Consciousness is where those things - memory, emotions, planning, prediction, are surfaced to be observed. I don't think we have free will, and perhaps that's the premise of this entire question.
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So consciousness is just a passive observer? It has nothing to do with internal monologues, which help guide our speech? What do you mean by "free will"? Do you think we lack it because of physics?
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Replying to @imhinesmi @cognazor
It has just as much to do with internal monologues - which are just thoughts, as it does with the other objects of consciousness we mentioned. What I mean by free will: thoughts/intentions/sensations just arrive and change. Maybe we can flip this.. 1/2
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Is it your sense that awareness is more than just a middleware for thoughts/sensations/intentions etc? What is awareness responsible for? Observation happens, and then whatever happens next is proprietary.
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