Difference between revisions of "Conscious experimentation"

Latest revision as of 16:17, 15 December 2017

File name conscious experimentation File created date 01:45 pm Sunday, November 23 2008

Beyond the fact that we can not be certain anything until we know everything, are there ways of determining the consciousness of a person or other conscious producing system?

How can you tell if something is conscious and exactly what that conscious is?

How can you tell if a computer like machine is conscious and knowing what that conscious is? There are ways of eliminating possibilities. And there are ways of determining the consciousness produced. You can eliminate possibilities by not being the right type of functioning or the complex enough functioning. You start having reason to believe something has human like consciousness if it has type- type functioning. For a non biological system this mean having communication system of neural impulses like that in the brain. Then you need a processor like the neurons. In other words it takes in information, processes it and then send it out in the right sequence. Then there is behavior of the system as a whole which consists of internal behavior external behavior and referential behavior to consciousness itself. Referential behavior can be words and gestures that can be interpreted to mean emotions and consciousness. Then there is extend behavior and behavior about planing of what the individual will do or be conscious in the future and in the past.

If you have a person that is producing a behavior that appears to be conscious, how do you actually know that he is conscious and not a zombie?

How do you know that you are currently conscious? Can you be mistaken about your own consciousness? If you are conscious or not it is true by a definition that either you choose or others choose. Of course, this definition may not be what you are actually striving for. For the lack of a good definition of personal consciousness we have been confused about personal identity and the identity of it over time, space, matter and the change in it.