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Consciousness and SCIENCE

Started by strongbad, May 12, 2014, 05:26:10 PM

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strongbad

Also how do you feel about consciousness?

We had a mini unit on consciousness in my cognitive neuro class today, and here were some of the take away points. I don't have references for these unfortunately; they were just things that my professor said.

-Consciousness becomes increasingly complex as an organism's brain becomes more complex (Monkey's have been shown to have theory of mind, crows have been shown to have 3rd order problem solving skills, etc)
--Some neuroscientists believe that even a single neuron posses some form of consciousness (though this is more controversial)

-Consciousness is simply a by-product of brain complexity and has no survival benefits. My professor brought up the zombie analogy, which is apparently used by philosophers. Imagine a zombie that can perform all basic survival functions: Motor skills, reflexes, whatever. What use does it have for consciousness?

-We have the illusion of free will

What does boyah think? Are we robots?
[spoiler]or are we dancersp[/spoiler]

silvertone

everything can be mathematically determined

ncba93ivyase

saying free will exists as we like to imagine requires some supernatural force since the chemical reactions in the brain need to be 100% reproducible in order to properly function

there's no proof such a thing exists

Quote from: ncba93ivyase on June 18, 2014, 07:58:34 PMthis isa great post i will use it in my sig

strongbad


snoorkel


klappa

QuoteImagine a zombie that can perform all basic survival functions: Motor skills, reflexes, whatever. What use does it have for consciousness?


To improve upon those things. ez


reeper


silvertone


YPrrrr

Quote from: ncba93ivyase on May 12, 2014, 09:52:26 PM
saying free will exists as we like to imagine requires some supernatural force since the chemical reactions in the brain need to be 100% reproducible in order to properly function

there's no proof such a thing exists
I would say the lack of free will requires some supernatural force (or if we are merely animals acting upon instinct which would be wrong) unless you have some odd definition of free will


silvertone

the christian god creates free will sometimes.

Kalahari Inkantation

free will is an illusion but that doesn't mean it's worthless 5thgrade;

Travis

Quote from: Majorana's Mask on May 19, 2017, 08:29:20 PM
free will is an illusion but that doesn't mean it's worthless 5thgrade;
Yo WHAAAAAAAAAT?
Yo WHAAAAAAAAAT?
Yo WHAAAAAAAAAT?
Yo WHAAAAAAAAAT?
Yo WHAAAAAAAAAT?
Yo WHAAAAAAAAAT?
Yo WHAAAAAAAAAT?
Yo WHAAAAAAAAAT?

rdl

we steer ourselves but everything else is unconscious

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