Re:If Materialism Is True, the United States Is Probably Con...
by MaxBarraclough on Monday February 22, 2021 @07:51AM
(#26223904)
> I don't know what it means to define consciousness without self awareness
Any entity capable of suffering presumably counts as being conscious. (I'm not claiming the converse here, though.) I don't see an obvious reason why every entity capable of suffering must necessarily be capable of self awareness.
With the right blend of psychotropics, I suspect it would be possible to dissolve a person's sense of self while still causing them to suffer. They would still count as being conscious.
Any entity capable of suffering presumably counts as being conscious. (I'm not claiming the converse here, though.) I don't see an obvious reason why every entity capable of suffering must necessarily be capable of self awareness.
With the right blend of psychotropics, I suspect it would be possible to dissolve a person's sense of self while still causing them to suffer. They would still count as being conscious.
Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24910009