What's a Brain? On bacterial, cellular, and other minimal minds

Re:What's a Brain? On bacterial, cellular, and other minimal... by Lerc on Tuesday October 01, 2024 @09:39PM (#41716385)

It needn't be dualism if there is some threshold that makes things conscious, but then people can ask what that threshold is and why, without a good answer people will think you're leaning on dualism again.

I doubt there is such a threshold, I think the issue people have with the idea that rocks might have cognition is it too difficult to perceive the difference in scale of complexity of a brain compared to a rock. People have trouble comprehending the idea of a millionth, going further than that there is the intrinsic difficulty of accepting something existing at a scale you cannot perceive or even conceive of what that might be.

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Re:What's a Brain? On bacterial, cellular, and other minimal... by woopsn on Tuesday October 01, 2024 @11:34PM (#41716904)

But we go to sleep, into deep anaesthesia, and to lesser degrees can lose or have degraded our various senses and cognitive capabilities - doesn't this show that the "thresholds" exist, evidently? Drink a bottle of vodka and you will slowly, and then completely, "lose consciousness". The issue folks have with the idea rocks are cognizant is that we can't see any reason to suppose that they are.

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Re:What's a Brain? On bacterial, cellular, and other minimal... by whythre on Wednesday October 02, 2024 @12:50PM (#41722593)

‘I think, therefore all matter must think’ is just such an unsubstantiated jump. Creatures having limited cognitive process, sure, of course. Rocks or other unliving matter thinking? That requires a lot of faith in materialism, so much so it starts looking a lot like primitive spiritism/shamanism.

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