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LucasSloan comments on The Irrationality Game - Less Wrong
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What does this mean? What is the difference between saying "What we call consciousness/self-awareness is just a side-effect of brain processes", which is pretty obviously true and saying that they're meaningless side effects?
Sorry, I was letting my own uncertainty get in the way of clarity there. A stronger version of what I was trying to say would be that consciousness gives us the illusion of being in control of our actions when in fact we have no such control. Or to put it another way: we're all P-zombies with delusions of grandeur (yes, this doesn't actually make logical sense, but it works for me)
So I agree with the science you cite, right? But what you said really doesn't follow. Just because our phonologic loop doesn't actually have the control it thinks it does, it doesn't follow that sensory modalities are "meaningless." You might want to re-read Joy in the Merely Real with this thought of yours in mind.
Well, sure, you can find meaning wherever you want. I'm currently listening to some music that I find beautiful and meaningful. But that beauty and meaning isn't an inherent trait of the music, it's just something that I read into it. Similarly when I say that consciousness is meaningless I don't mean that we should all become nihilists, only that consciousness doesn't pay rent and so any meaning or usefulness it has is what you invent for it.
I don't know about you, but I'm not a P-zombie. :)
That emoticon isn't fooling anyone.