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ChristianKl comments on Does consciousness persist? - Less Wrong Discussion

-10 Post author: G0W51 14 February 2015 03:52PM

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Comment author: ChristianKl 14 February 2015 06:25:27PM 3 points [-]

The best I can do is point to something that is conscious (such as myself) and say "conscious" and then point to something that seems unlikely to be conscious (such as a rock) and say "not conscious."

That's not enough to be able to meaningfully answer the question "If one's consciousness suddenly became a totally different one, we know of no quantum particles that would change".

Practically I can distinguish a state where my heartbeat is within my conscious awareness from the state where it isn't. I can also distinguish the state where the heartbeat of another person is within my awareness and isn't.

I can distinguish between having the person sitting next to me in a lecture within my awareness and not having them within my awareness.

In both cases there are practical consequences. Likely consequences that you haven't observed because you don't have control over the different states and therefore can't experiment with it.

Comment author: G0W51 14 February 2015 09:41:29PM 0 points [-]

I don't follow. Why are you talking about conscious awareness?

Comment author: ChristianKl 15 February 2015 02:21:31AM 0 points [-]

What do you think consciousness is about when it's not about being aware and perceiving something?

Comment author: G0W51 15 February 2015 02:37:28AM 0 points [-]

Again, I can't really describe consciousness, so I'll give a example. Computers are aware of the user's keystrokes, as in there is some signal in the computer that is formed by keystrokes and processed accordingly, but the computer isn't necessarily conscious.

Comment author: ChristianKl 15 February 2015 02:39:45AM 0 points [-]

My body is always aware of it's heart beat the same way that a computer is always aware of the users keystrokes.

That's not the awareness I'm talking about. I'm talking about conscious awareness where it's possible to be aware of the heart beat and possible not to be.

Comment author: G0W51 15 February 2015 02:57:00AM 0 points [-]

Yes, I think I'm thinking about the same type of consciousness/awareness you are. Where were we going with this?

Comment author: ChristianKl 15 February 2015 09:37:39AM *  0 points [-]

Yes, I think I'm thinking about the same type of consciousness/awareness you are.

Then why are you speaking about the way a computer is aware about all keystrokes that the keyboard sends? That's not what I'm talking about.

Comment author: G0W51 15 February 2015 06:25:12PM 0 points [-]

The keystroke example was to demonstrate what I didn't mean when I said consciousness.

Comment author: ChristianKl 15 February 2015 07:50:38PM 0 points [-]

Okay, sorry on that part.

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