| Jun. 7th, 2008 @ 10:42 pm (no subject) |
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Thinking more on the Susan Blackmore TED Talk I posted - I wonder what it is about consciousness that scares some scientists to such an extent that they continually attempt to 'kill' it. They try to prove that consciousness isn't reallyconsciousness, it's something else that just looks like consciousness to the untrained eye.
How do you get a trained eye without consciousness, is my question.
And did you (if you watched it) get where she said that meme replication is what seperates the human from the animal? However, if meme replication is merely the repitition of observed behavior (and what else could it be if my mind is just a breeding ground for information blindly replicating itself?) - then that's sheer unadulterated bullocks. As any naturalist, or person who's worked with chimps or training animals will tell you. Parrots mimic speech. Racoons can figure out how to work doorknobs 'n' shit. What is that if not observing and repeating behavior? How is that different from how we do it? Oh, yeah - they don't really understand what they're doing.
Then again, neither do you, if you follow this model to its natural conclusion. Smart people can be awfully blind sometimes, it seems to me. |
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