The Magic of Consciousness 3/6

The Magic of Consciousness

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Dan
• Dennett
• The
• Magic
• of
• Consciousness
• 003

[lookatmepleasesir]

You can't see everything that's happening in the brain by looking at it from a third person perspective. You can only see the red stripe in the brain if the brain is yours.

[homerj7g]

@lookatmepleasesir

We don't have the technology that gives us 100% knowledge of the brain. What Dan is saying is that if we did have this knowledge, then that would necessarily include all the information of what the 1st person subject would feel as well, as well as a lot of information that the 1st person subject does not have access to.

If we had complete 3rd person knowledge of someone's brain, maybe we could make a machine that uses this to give someone else the 1st person experience.

[homerj7g]

The point wasn't that someone else can see the red stripe automatically by looking at someone else's brain, but that the information is in there. Dan is saying you could potentially extract that information and determine scientifically what it means. This means that the information is not private. While the 1st person has the most immediate access to his own experiences, but he is not the only person to potentially have access to it once technology improves.

[MrAtheism33]

@alienzen "What does the word "illusion mean if you use it to refer to the self?"

By "illusion" Dennett doesn't mean "fake". By illusion, Dennett means an "interpretation." In order to make sensory processing more manageable, the brain interprets it's countless neuronal processes as part of a stable and singular self. This makes our conscious life more energy efficient and manageable. Our "self" is a short summary of an otherwise two million page book.

[alienzen]

@MrAtheism33 What does the word "illusion" mean if you use it to refer to the self? surely everything that comes from the self, ie everything it experiences, the entire world must be an illusion, so the word becomes meaningless.

[alienzen]

@MrAtheism33 What does the word "illusion" mean if you use it to refer to the self? surely everything that comes from the self, ie everything it experiences, the entire world must be an illusion, so the word becomes meaningless.

[MrAtheism33]

@Drastam "I dont agree with Dennett. He says there is no such thing as subjective consciousness"

What Dennett actually says in his books is that the phenomenon of subjective consciousness is an illusion that the brain interprets as real. That there is an awareness of our cognitive faculties does not imply the existence of a singular subject (or an "I"). His point is the "I" we think of as ourselves is not a singular coherent thing, but a complex network of various brain functions.

[MrAtheism33]

@lookatmepleasesir How do you characterize what an after image "looks like"? The point is that an after image "seems" to exist in space...on the screen. You are not taking into account that you already know what an after-image is and how it works. Thus, you can distinguish between what seems to be an after image and what seems to be a permanent red object.

[lookatmepleasesir]

@MrAtheism33 but it looks like an after image to me, not a red object in space