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A comment on Ask HN: Where does consciousness come from?.

Re:Ask HN: Where does consciousness come from? by tlrobinson on Friday December 19, 2008 @04:04AM (#403182)
This is one of those questions that bothers me. Not the question itself, just the fact that we don't know, and likely can't know.

Is there some test to prove if something has "consciousness"? Without such a test I don't think we can know what it really is. You might propose having the thing explain the feeling to you, but I could just program a computer to do the same thing (theoretically).

I have no way of knowing whether or not anyone else besides myself experiences this thing called consciousness.

You all could be perfectly designed robots that are tricking me into believing you're also humans who experience consciousness.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Where does consciousness come from? by Tichy on Friday December 19, 2008 @06:38AM (#403246)
The funny thing about your thought experiment, as well as the infamous "chinese room", is that you could actually turn it on it's head. The conclusion is that consciousness doesn't matter.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Where does consciousness come from? by randallsquared on Friday December 19, 2008 @08:15AM (#403302)
If you divorce all the products of consciousness from consciousness itself, then you could say consciousness doesn't matter. Also, any particular product of consciousness is easily produced without it. Given that evolution stumbled on consciousness, I think it's plausible that within the constraints of biology, consciousness is the simplest way to produce the behavior we associate with it.
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Re:Ask HN: Where does consciousness come from? by lehmannro on Friday December 19, 2008 @08:13AM (#403301)
You all could be perfectly designed robots that are tricking me into believing you're also humans who experience consciousness.

If you rebuilt humans with whatever technology (we might use transistors, nature used neurons), how would they be different from real humans then? Why would you call the robot a trickster while saying you are no doubt conscious?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Where does consciousness come from? by tlrobinson on Friday December 19, 2008 @09:38AM (#403355)
Maybe a robot that perfectly mimics a human does have consciousness, but we don't know that, and I don't think we can know. That's all I'm saying.

For all I know I'm the only "being" in existence who really has this thing called consciousness that I know I experience, and all the rest of you aren't really "real".

I don't know why that would be, but it's a scary thought. Kind of like "The Matrix"...

[ Parent | on HN ]