From: Ian Goddard (igoddard@erols.com)
Date: Sun Mar 01 1998 - 14:54:29 MST
Ian Goddard <igoddard@erols.com> wrote:
> A broader definition of art could be: an ordering of elements
> that invokes sensual experience, generally pleasurable exper-
> ience. ...
> And it stands to reason that an understanding of what is art
> is an integral feature of understanding what it is to be a
> human and thus what it will take to become a transhuman.
IAN: It just occured to me that there is an identity
(same as) relation between the more-logical theories
of self or "soul" and the definition of art I stated.
The most persuasive argument about the nature of the
individual "soul" that I've heard is that it is more
than the atoms of which the brain is composed, but
this "more" is not a supernatural spirit, it's simply
the ordering of those atoms. I recall reading in the
journal Free Inquiry that the soul is likened to the
difference between a pile of lumber and bricks (atoms)
and a constructed house (brain). So the house is more
than its elements, but to assume that this "more" is
a spirit, a ghost in the machine, is an illusion.
OK, so if art is properly defined as "an ordering of
material and/or electrical elements that is greater
than the sum of those elements and causes sensual
experience" and if consciousness is also properly
defined as "an ordering of material and/or electrical
elements that is greater than the sum of those ele-
ments and causes sensual experience," then lo and
behold, it follows directly that art = consciousness.
The statement that "art expresses who you are" is
such a truism it draws a yawn, but the logical iden-
tity I just proposed between art and consciousness
would map a most profound example of that truism.
It would therefore truly follow in the most intimate
way that understanding what is art is integral to
understanding what it is to be a human and thus what
it will take to become a transhuman, since the mech-
anical replication of consciousness/art is the corner-
stone of the quest for the transhumanist liberation.
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