I am curious as to your thoughts on the following. Consciousness requires at minimum a sensory apparatus and a communication apparatus that intentionally send a message regardless of complexity.
I am curious as to your thoughts on the following. Consciousness requires at minimum a sensory apparatus and a communication apparatus that intentionally send a message regardless of complexity.
I'm not persuaded consciousness requires a sensory apparatus. It's required for contents of consciousness to be there, but it's possible to have the experience of pure consciousness that has no contents whatsoever (no thoughts, sensations, time, space, anything at all but still conscious) and it's possible to engineer a brand new sense (e.g. there was research on translating magnetic field reading into vibrations on a belt leading over time to a new direct sense of where north is that people don't have). So that's all contents, but not consciousness itself. As for communication, I'm even less persuaded it's required.
Not exactly. I think consciousness as ability to experience is exactly the same in all instances: you and me, people and animals, today and a 100 years ago. The contents of consciousness, though, is dramatically different: my experience and a bat's experience have to be very different. But when consciousness is stripped of its contents (through concentration practices or drugs), it's pure perception without any content whatsoever тАФ and that could be a fundamental property of reality.
If you're into this topic, listen to Lights On тАФ you'll love it.
I am curious as to your thoughts on the following. Consciousness requires at minimum a sensory apparatus and a communication apparatus that intentionally send a message regardless of complexity.
I'm not persuaded consciousness requires a sensory apparatus. It's required for contents of consciousness to be there, but it's possible to have the experience of pure consciousness that has no contents whatsoever (no thoughts, sensations, time, space, anything at all but still conscious) and it's possible to engineer a brand new sense (e.g. there was research on translating magnetic field reading into vibrations on a belt leading over time to a new direct sense of where north is that people don't have). So that's all contents, but not consciousness itself. As for communication, I'm even less persuaded it's required.
Are you saying that an anthropocentric view of consciousness blinds us to other forms of consciousness? Is this a zenith koan?
Not exactly. I think consciousness as ability to experience is exactly the same in all instances: you and me, people and animals, today and a 100 years ago. The contents of consciousness, though, is dramatically different: my experience and a bat's experience have to be very different. But when consciousness is stripped of its contents (through concentration practices or drugs), it's pure perception without any content whatsoever тАФ and that could be a fundamental property of reality.
If you're into this topic, listen to Lights On тАФ you'll love it.