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Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts
Monday, October 26, 2020
Monday, December 2, 2019
Questions about Panpsychism
Are animals conscious?
If so, how would we find out?
Wouldn't we have to use external observation in the form of some material mechanism?
Maybe one would think that animals could tell us what it is like to be them. Maybe we could interpret their languages and understand that they are experiencing what we are experiencing.
How would you explain to a foreign person that has never heard the word consciousness what consciousness is? How would a dolphin explain to us that it is conscious? How would we ask it?
Saying that humans have consciousness is a fact and then postulating that that fact is an indicator that all things are conscious seems like a very big leap. If consciousness is at the root of all physical reality then many entities would experience the world in a similar way as humans and should at least experience some form of consciousness.
How is consciousness defined? If the definition comes from the only thing we know is conscious then the definition must include the aspects that are linked to the human we experience of it. This means that it would include characteristics such as a self-concept or self-representation, a stream of present tense external and internal stimulus that includes some form of symbolic representation such as a language that interprets, analyses and integrates stimulus in a meaningful and expressible manner.
If the only way we know that something is conscious is to ask them and if we ask someone if they are conscious and they say yes why should we believe them? Why should we trust our own perception of consciousness? How, other than appealing to physical reality, would we ground our confidence that consciousness exists?
Philip also relies on the difference between quantity and quality but I didn't get a good definition of quality. Maybe it is just another term for subjective valuation and has no objective base. If that is true and "quality" can not be judged then there is no reason to study it as it can neither be wrong or right. So how does someone who thinks consciousness is only qualitative expect to study it?
Is there a way to evaluate quality in the form of quantity such as a degree of happiness, or a degree of redness? Also, I'm not sure if "redness" is a qualitative characteristic. Experiences can be quantified such as how many times one experiences something or the amount of hormones, neurotransmitters, and electrical activity that exist before, during and after an experience.
If the only way we know that something is conscious is to ask them and if we ask someone if they are conscious and they say yes why should we believe them? Why should we trust our own perception of consciousness? How, other than appealing to physical reality, would we ground our confidence that consciousness exists?
Philip also relies on the difference between quantity and quality but I didn't get a good definition of quality. Maybe it is just another term for subjective valuation and has no objective base. If that is true and "quality" can not be judged then there is no reason to study it as it can neither be wrong or right. So how does someone who thinks consciousness is only qualitative expect to study it?
Is there a way to evaluate quality in the form of quantity such as a degree of happiness, or a degree of redness? Also, I'm not sure if "redness" is a qualitative characteristic. Experiences can be quantified such as how many times one experiences something or the amount of hormones, neurotransmitters, and electrical activity that exist before, during and after an experience.
If you care about science then you must care about the means in which we verify intuitions. Also, Philip repeats the idea that neuroscientists can only get at a correlation between brain activity and conscious accounts but that correlation does not disprove causation as much as it proves causation. Also, neuroscience is not the only science that studies consciousness.
Philip keeps asking Sean to explain what a particle is as opposed to what it does but he doesn't explain how if everything is conscious how would we ever prove it if materialism or scientific methods or empiricism is on a different level as consciousness. It is a kind of unmoved mover kind of argument. It's not that physical reality includes consciousness it is that consciousness is what physical reality actually is and therefore cannot be explained by physical reality. Saying that what we do when we do math or science is just describe the behavior of consciousness doesn't explain consciousness or prove its existence at all. It is the same argument that God is before time and space and therefore one can not prove its existence using science.
Why should consciousness be on a different ground than any other concept? It should not be held up higher than any other hypothesis or theory. We should be skeptical of our assumptions regardless of how real they feel and we should be skeptical of our willingness to separate things because they seem mysterious and miraculous. We should ask questions about what we are talking about when we use the word consciousness and why it's important.
I suppose what I mean is I should ask these questions and look into the subject more.
Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panpsychism
https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2019/11/04/71-philip-goff-on-consciousness-everywhere/
Friday, March 1, 2019
Thursday, December 27, 2018
30 Days of Fiction: Day 29
His brother and sister were much larger and would never let Taratumba win any of the games.
His mother would watch as they wrestled and raced.
Even though Taratumba was always overpowered and last in the races he never stopped trying.
When he was one month old he and his siblings began to chase rabbits and birds around the savannah. Taratumba wanted to practice hunting too but when he tried his brother or sister would run up behind him and take the small animal he was chasing for themselves. They would laugh at Taratumba but he never stopped trying.
Soon, Taratumba learned that while his siblings were faster, he was smaller and quieter. When no one was watching he would sneak away from his mother and practice stalking small animals. He would crouch down as low as possible making him nearly invisible. Slowly, he would sneak through the grass as quiet as a mouse. After much practice, Taratumba could get so close that a rabbit only knew he was there when its whiskers felt his paw swiping at it.
One day, when no one was looking, Taratumba snuck out to practice stalking. He found a rat and stalked it for a while until the rat began to run. Taratumba raced after the rat and, for the first time, he caught it in his mouth. He was so proud and so excited to show his mother but when he turned around he did not see his mother or siblings anywhere.
Taratumba was afraid. He dropped the rat and it scurried off. He tried to retrace his steps but could not find his family.
After searching and searching, he found himself at the edge of a large forest. Tall dark trees towered over Taratumba which made him feel smaller than ever.
He turned to leave but stopped when he heard a mesmerizing voice coming from deep inside the forest. The voice was calm and comforting and softly said, "Taratumba... Taratumba..."
Taratumba was hypnotized by the voice so he walked toward the voice into the forest.
"Taratumba...Come to me," the voice called out.
Deep into the woods, Taratumba came upon a tall tree with many slithering limbs that stretched forever toward the sky and out into the endless forest. He looked up into the tree to see the glowing yellow eyes of a black panther staring back at him. It was crouched high above Taratumba, ready to pounce on the little cheetah cub. Taratumba stared back at the panther, transfixed by its gaze.
Without warning the panther lept toward Taratumba but he was able to jump away, barely escaping the panther's razor-sharp fangs.
Taratumba ran as fast as he could but the panther was getting closer. Knowing he could not outrun the panther Taratumba took a sharp left and hid inside a big bush. The panther stopped and sniffed the air searching for its dinner.
Taratumba crouched silently through the forest floor sneaking around massive tree roots, fallen logs and jungle vines. With the vicious panther just behind him, he crept closer and closer to the light coming from the edge of the trees.
When Taratumba was within a few feet of the savannah grasses he began to run. The panther heard him and took chase. In a fury, Taratumba ran past the trees and into the open grassland. With the panther just behind him, he saw three cheetahs running toward him.
The panther caught up in time to slash at Taratumba's legs causing him to fall forward into the dirt. Before the panther could strike again Taratumba's mother and siblings were there to get in the way. Even though the panther was much larger the Taratumba family was more agile and ducked away from its swipes. Taratumba watched as they took every opportunity to strike back at the beast. His siblings fought bravely hitting the panther alongside their mother.
All of this commotion confused the panther who gave up and ran back into the darkness of the forest.
As Taratumba struggled to his feet his family surrounded him and helped him get up. They nuzzled and licked him showing him how much they had worried when he went missing. Taratumba told them about how he was getting really good at stalking and how he was practicing when he heard the panther calling him from the forest. He told them that he would never sneak behind their backs again and they told him that they wanted to see his new skill in action. The family walked back into the arid grasslands, this time, with Taratumba leading the way.
Friday, October 19, 2018
Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Photo Journal 9/26/2018
Fractal Focus recently purchased a Canon G7X Mark II and I decided to take it out to one of my favorite places to walk and take photos. I took these photos today walking Marine Drive along the Columbia River Gorge. My brother and I decided to get this camera mainly for travel and Instagram because it allows us to take a camera anywhere and everywhere that has more capabilities and better quality than a phone camera. So far it is performing very well, especially for its size.
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| Photo By Josh Gray |
Marine Drive, Portland, Oregon
Shot with Canon G7X MarkII
No editing
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