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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=496430517-27102006><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>Sorry, I sent the previous excerpt
accidentally.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=496430517-27102006><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=496430517-27102006><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>But since we're on the topic, let me ask AB then:
Would you rather maximize your pleasure or maximize the promotion of your
values? You might respond that you would choose to maximize your pleasure
by means that include promotion of your values, but if that were the case,
I would then ask whether you wouldn't better maximize your pleasure via IV drip
in some secluded room for as long as possible. Such a line of thought
leads inexorably to the absurdity of being dead in order to avoid
suffering.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=496430517-27102006><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=496430517-27102006><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>Regarding consciousness, you have no way of measuring
whether anyone is conscious. We all could be zombies but behave
exactly the same. Occam's razor implies that all have consciousness
similar to your own, but in any case you have absolutely no access
to others subjective experience. So how is consciousness relevant to
your decision-making?</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=496430517-27102006><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=496430517-27102006><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>It might be only a distraction, but I could point out that
direct access to even your own subjective experience is an illusion.
Think distorted memory, fabricated memory, Libet experiments,
etc. Despite the assumption of Descartes and others, there is no "you" who
has privileged access to the experience of being you. If you were to
enquire as to what it's like to be you, you would be querying a physical system
that would respond based on its particular functional
characteristics including its model of the world (with you in it) from the
past. [Recursion, ad infinitum, from the subjective POV]</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=496430517-27102006><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=496430517-27102006><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>- Jef</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN
class=137494716-27102006>AB wrote:</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
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<DIV>I agree completely with what George Dvorsky wrote. I would also add
that it is only through consciousness that pleasure is possible (which most
beings would choose to maximize), and alternatively, it is only through
consciousness that suffering is possible (which most beings
would choose to minimize). That alone makes consciousness pretty darned
important, in my book.<SPAN class=137494716-27102006><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff
size=2> </FONT></SPAN></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>