Re: Uploading

From: Hara Ra (harara@shamanics.com)
Date: Sun Jul 13 1997 - 06:09:12 MDT


EvMick@aol.com wrote:
 
> Now suppose that consciousness is a meme. And suppose that there are
> different flavors...like the flu....(are you more conscious than Bubba? Is
> Bubba even conscious at all? Is Bubba even awake?)
>
The first original thought about the C word I have seen in several
years!
YAAAAAY!

> That being stipulated...wouldn't it require a language to transmit
> "consciousness"...or at least some type of meme vector....(TV transmits
> stupidy...is this to much of a stretch?)

Reposting something I put on Cryonet.....

=> From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com>:

=> Absent a definition, its hard to even begin reasoning about the
=> property. Things which are so slippery that they have no good
=> definition should arouse our suspicion.
 
= OK. Let's get some definitions going here. Get out your nits and pick
= away, but the price to join the picking is to offer a definition of
your
= own:

= -------------------------
= Definition: Consciousness

= A system is conscious if:

= 1. It is capable of lingusitic communication (it can talk)
= 2. It can discuss its own existence (it knows it exists)

= -------------------------
= The second condition is the tough one, of course. Let me propose a
= Turing style test by saying that a human using a teletype could not
= distinguish between a human (or other system presumed to be known as
= conscious) and the system under test, with the discussion limited to
the
= topics we usually consider to be "about consciousness". If that is too
= general, how about "experience of existence".

= As a challenge to the deeper thinkers here, I state that a ruthless
= application of the above definition combined with the following idea
= leads quite logically to a reaonably good definition of "soul".

= 3. All of my memories of being conscious include the memory of
my
= existence.

= Have fun!

O---------------------------------O
| Hara Ra <harara@shamanics.com> |
| Box 8334 Santa Cruz, CA 95061 |
O---------------------------------O



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