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shminux comments on [LINK] Claustrum Stimulation Temporarily Turns Off Consciousness in an otherwise Awake Patient - Less Wrong Discussion

34 Post author: shminux 04 July 2014 08:00PM

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Comment author: shminux 05 July 2014 11:38:39PM 1 point [-]

Personally I have never understood why people keep acting and talking as if consciousness were binary.

I agree and I don't think that's what anyone claims it here. What is interesting is that one small area of her brain can be reversibly affected in a way that completely removes both consciousness and memory formation while keeping the person awake otherwise, which is very much different from sedation or general anaesthesia.

Yet people keep asking things like "do animals have consciousness?" and I keep wondering if I'm missing something or if the answer is just really obviously "yes to varying degrees depending on the animal but almost always less than humans do."

I don't think serious neuroscientists ask questions like that, and yes, the obvious answer better be correct.

Comment author: MugaSofer 07 July 2014 06:44:10PM *  2 points [-]

I agree and I don't think that's what anyone claims it here.

I've definitely seen it used on and around here.

The example that springs to mind is the argument that infanticide is acceptable "before they become conscious" (which in practice seems to mean "before they can talk" for some reason) - which I believe was invented by Eliezer as a steelman of "it's OK to eat babies" and then escaped into the wild - and I believe I've seen it in discussions of vegetarianism and even Friendly AI ("well, there are two options. Either X is conscious, in which case...")

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