From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Thu Jun 28 2001 - 19:31:37 MDT
Greg Burch writes
> I do not believe that we have the slightest basis for positing the
> possibility of consciousness outside of a social context. I am personally
> deeply suspicious of the notion of some kind of abstract "general
> intelligence" divorced from context and, most especially, divorced from
> social context.
Would you mind explaining why this doesn't apply to hermits? If read
literally, you seem to be suggesting that after sufficiently many
years Robinson Crusoe could no longer be conscious. Can you clarify?
I agree with Robert Bradbury's remarks, actually.
> As Robin Hanson has so cogently pointed out in his essay "Dreams of
> Autarchy", there really is no basis for believing that we can live in
> isolation.
Well, I don't see anything in http://hanson.gmu.edu/dreamautarky.html
that suggests that "consciousness outside of a social context" is
not possible.
Lee Corbin
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