From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Fri Dec 17 1999 - 11:48:49 MST
From: John Clark <jonkc@worldnet.att.net>
>why does
>everybody thinks they're conscious if they really are not. Just calling it an
illusion
>is no answer unless you're able to tell me the mechanics of it. How does the
>illusion work? And besides, even an illusion is something, it exists.
Hi John,
Call it self-delusion instead of an illusion if you prefer. People can dream
that they are awake. Upon awakening, they know that it was just a dream. Insane
people can imagine that they are sane. Traumatized people can hallucinate that
they've been abducted by aliens. Self-medicated druggies can imagine that they
are flying. Opinionated people can confabulate their experiences to conclude
that they are conscious. The "mechanics" of hallucination may involve brain
chemistry and hormonal or psychoactive substance action not yet catalogued, or
in some cases perhaps damage to particular areas of the temporal lobes of the
cerebral cortex.
We (you and I) know when we have consciousness the same way we know when we have
a headache -- and we find it equally impossible to prove either state to someone
else. It takes a conscious being to know a conscious being, and so it takes a
superconscious being to know a superconscious being. The rest amounts to
speculation and fantasy -- for now. Sometimes quite interesting speculation and
fascinating fantasy, but speculation and fantasy nevertheless.
I agree with Ray Kurzweil that, when a machine vehemently asserts its
consciousness, we'll have to take its word for it. At that point, I think we
should no longer refer to it as a machine, but rather choose some other term or
invent a new one or just refer to him or her by name ("the synthetic awareness
formerly known as Blue Gene"?).
Incidentally, to the extent that we indulge in speculation and fantasy (as I'm
doing now) we no longer directly experience pure consciousness.
Cheers,
--J. R. Molloy
http://www.shasta.com/jr
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