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<a https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7467335'> Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>
<a https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7467335'> Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>
<a https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7467335'> Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

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Gaia theory

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Reply 20
Avatar for Dez
Dez
20
Gaia theory is a nice idea, but it's something to be confined to Final Fantasy VII for me.
Reply 21
Avatar for Iago
Iago
1
No. Self-regulation does not imply consciousness. You can have mechanical self-regulation. You can have accidental self-regulation. Self-regulation does not imply intention, or any kind of experiential mental states at all.

Consciousness is more than mere information processing. That the Earth self-regulates does not mean it is conscious. France is also something that self-regulates in a complex fashion. This does not mean France is conscious.
Iago
No. Self-regulation does not imply consciousness. You can have mechanical self-regulation. You can have accidental self-regulation. Self-regulation does not imply intention, or any kind of experiential mental states at all.

Consciousness is more than mere information processing. That the Earth self-regulates does not mean it is conscious. France is also something that self-regulates in a complex fashion. This does not mean France is conscious.


What is your definition of consciousness then?
Reply 23
Avatar for arkbar
arkbar
12
It's all full of various feedbacks, nothing more.
Reply 24
Avatar for Iago
Iago
1
FreedomtoFascism
What is your definition of consciousness then?


I can't define it any more than I can define a part of it - e.g. I can't define for you the experience of yellowness. I can only assume you are also capable of experiencing yellow and point to something I see as yellow.

The experience of yellow is only one aspect of experience as a whole. I think that consciousness is a function of experience - but to cut a long story short I basically think that experience is neccesarily entailed by consciousness. That is to say, if you're conscious, you must be experiencing the world in some way.

Now I can't define experience to you. It may not admit of definition. I can only assume that you also experience the world and point you to that experience. Look around you, hear the sounds about you, think about your childhood. Right, there you go. That's experience. And without experience there's no consciousness.

Does every complex self-regulating system have consciousness? Well do they all have experiences? Does France experience the world? Does this computer experience the world? Does the Earth taken as a whole experience the world?

If not, then they are not conscious.

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