[ExI] Zombie glutamate

[John Clark]

On Sat, Feb 14, 2015 at 10:18 PM, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
>>> It means you can open a brain prosthesis business with the
>>> guarantee that if you look after the technical aspects, any consciousness
>>> that was there will be preserved.
>>
>>
>> >> But if one of your customers said he was conscious before but after
>> using your prosthesis he no longer was and demanded you honor your
>> guarantee and give him his money back how do you know if he's telling the
>> truth? Do you give him his money back?
>>
>
> > No, because you have a proof that if he was conscious before
>

How can you have a proof of that?


> > and he continues to behave the same way now then he is still conscious.
>

He continues to behave intelligently and if he is still conscious (but is
he?) that would be consistent with the theory that consciousness is the
inevitable by product of intelligence. I am certain this theory is true,
and I'm probably correct too, and there is considerable evidence in it's
favor; but is there proof? No and there never will be.

And there are other theories that are also consistent with everything known
about consciousness, for example the theory that 2 and only 2 attributes
are needed to be conscious, being male and being 6 feet 2 inches tall. The
theory that conscious is generated by the left big toe and those lacking
such a toe are not conscious is also consistent with all the evidence. You
may say these theories are silly and they are, but like all consciousness
theories they can't be proven wrong. The consciousness-intelligence link
theory can't be proven wrong either but it has something the others do not,
it is the exact same rule of thumb that every single one of us has used
every single day of our lives to determine if something is conscious or
not. And I can think of no reason to abandon this very useful rule of thumb
just because computers are starting to behave intelligently.

  John K Clark
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