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kokotajlod comments on [LINK] Claustrum Stimulation Temporarily Turns Off Consciousness in an otherwise Awake Patient - Less Wrong
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There are at least two distinct senses in which consciousness can be binary. The first sense is the kind you are probably thinking about: the range between e.g. insects, dogs, and humans, or maybe between early and late-stage Alzheimers.
The second sense is the kind that your interlocutors are (I surmise) thinking about. Imagine this: A being that is functionally exactly like you, and that is experiencing exactly what you are experiencing, except that it is experiencing everything "only half as much." It still behaves the same way as you, and it still thinks the same way as you; it's just that it's thoughts only count half.
If this sounds ridiculous to you, well, then you agree with your interlocutors. :) Personally, I think that there IS such a thing as partial consciousness in the sense described above, and I can link you to literature if you like.
EDIT: The place to start is Nick Bostrom's "Quantity of Experience: Brain Duplication and Degrees of Consciousness," available for free online.
EDIT: But the people who ask "Do animals have consciousness" are probably talking about the first kind, in which case I share your frustration. The second kind is more what people talk about when they ask e.g. "Could a machine have consciousness?"
I don't think the first sense and the second are mutually exclusive.
A dog has half as much processing power as a human = a dog can think the same thoughts but only at half the speed.
A dog has half as much consciousness as a human = a dog is only half as aware as a human of what's going on.
And yes, I definitely think that this is how it works. For example, when I get up in the morning I am much less aware of what's going on than when I am fully awake. Sometimes I pause and go "wait what am I doing right now?" And of course there's those funny times when you end up going to your old school by accident because you're not aware of what you're doing until it's too late...
The only part I disagree with is "A being that is functionally exactly like you, and that is experiencing exactly what you are experiencing". A being that is only half as conscious is going to have a different brain, so will act differently. You definitely notice when someone is only at 50% consciousness.
Finally, I submit that consciousness works just like will power: It is a limited resource which you can allocate to certain tasks/thoughts, and by training it you can get more of it. A good rationalist needs a large pool of consciousness.
IOW halfway between a person and a p-zombie?