[extropy-chat] Tommy (Was: Consciousness is a process in multi-dimensional time!)

[ben]

gts <gts_2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:


> We were pondering a similar and I think even more interesting 
> question here recently: some blind people can respond to objects in 
> their field of vision even with no conscious experience of seeing.
> Apparently they can see but don't know how they can see, like Tommy
> the Pinball Wizard.
> 
> Imagine a person with this sort of blind-sight for all his senses, 
> and imagine his blind-sight was perfectly accurate. Wouldn't that 
> person seem no different from anyone else?
> 
> Acy argued he would not be like us; that he would not be able to 
> respond appropriately to questions like, "Hmm, nice weather today, 
> yes?" But I don't see why that is so. Presumably he would know it was
>  a nice day, but not know what he meant by it. :)

I would agree with Acy here. Your scenario supposes 'blind-everything',
not just blind-sight. AFAIK this is not possible (I would be astonished
if it were). We understand blind-sight, i believe it's an evolutionarily
earlier visual pathway. Presumably from a time that pre-dates
consciousness, which is why it's not connected up to the bits of the
brain involved in consciousness. Such a person would be able to dodge an
object coming at his face, i expect, but not say anything about what it was.
"Nice weather" is far too abstract a notion for a system like this to be
able to cope with. It requires the higher cognition parts of the brain.

ben