Just a quick note: Brandon9000 in Post: 717519 - writes:
Quote:JamesMorrison wrote:
What distinguishes human beings from the lower animals is that human beings have consciousness, while the animals don't.
This quote attribution is erroneous. The quote is from oristarA's Post: 717510 .
Brandon9000 statement:
Quote:I dispute this. To me it seems more like animals have increasing levels of consciousness as intelligence increases, but I think it's a matter of degree.
This is more in line with, not only my thinking, but actual observations in a myriad of scientific studies.
It is interesting to note that consciousness results from ever increasing numbers of neurons working in close proximity to one another. Pick any two neurons at random from a human brain and a physical / chemical examination would reveal little difference (some do exhibit a propensity to emit differing neurotransmitters, but this may be disregarded for the purpose of my argument here). Examine groups of such similar neurons and things change somewhat; specialties evolve with optic or auditory processing abilities. Drawing further back on our examination we see coordination among various groups of specialty areas in the brain. Additionally pulling back, we observe consciousness developing almost as a side effect emanating from the association of nearly identical neurons.
This seems the way of evolution: increasing complexity producing systems that manifest sums greater then their parts, so why not consciousness developing in ever increasing digital systems? I suspect human skepticism towards acceptance of this possibility has more to do with the raw materials from which the "consciousness" springs. Carbon based is OK. Silicon based intelligence may just be the future in bigotry--thinking, conscious, moral robots or just "Skin Jobs"? (Any body remember what movie that derogatory term came from?)
JM