[extropy-chat] Cont. re: nature of consciousness

[citta437 at aol.com]

"Gts: "It seems that in our branch of evolution, we lost the ability to 
eat light
but retained the ability to detect it."

My reply: Not to be rude but who is this you called "we?" Is it not a 
form of energy/thinking and cognition? Light as energy is absorbed by 
an organ system called brain which in turn transforms the energy of 
light via retina and optic nerves to an image imprinted by past event 
in the center of memory and language/a closed system.

gts: "Light detection is perhaps the most basic example of knowledge
acquisition. This knowledge starts with biological knowledge in plants 
and
animals, but extends to intellectual human knowledge. Vision and all 
more
advanced forms of cognition can be understood as more efficient
substitutes for primitive trial-and-error random locomotion, including
even the process of forming abstract theories about the world."

My reply: Knowledge as a product of energy is recyclable. Where did 
Einstein get his theory of energy as mass times the speed of light 
squared? Abstract ideas arise from a mind with a higher level of 
consciousness. Virus and bacteria have some form of 
awareness/consciousness otherwise they could not mutate or multiply 
given the energy to grow.

gts: "All evolution, from the physical and biological to the mental and 

cultural, can then be seen as a single contiguous process involving the 

growth of knowledge."

Me: I agree seen in that perspective. Some knowledge like beliefs and 
dogmas remain in a state of potent energy which can lead to entropy 
instead of extropy.

Terry
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