The I’s Have It
by John Derbyshire
A clergyman (Anglican, of course*) once told me that the question he was most often asked by parishioners was: “Will my dog go to heaven?” That was thirty-something years ago. If the good reverend is still around, and can hold on for just a few years more, he may be able to offer his parishioners a definitive answer. more…
Posted on 4:00 PM by NER
Comments
2 Jul 2007
Jonathan
Have you read any of Greg Bear's science fiction novels? Two in particular, <em>Queen of Angels</em> and <em>Slant</em>, contain some sophisticated meditations on the nature of consciousness and machine intelligence. I highly recommend both.
3 Jul 2007
alfred
Mr. Derbyshire, you are a bore, full bore. If my hard-earned and scarce dollars are to be funneled to fuel your tedious professorial pomposity rather than the useful and needful work of Mr. Fitzgerald and others, qua the burgeoning Muslim threat to our values, our government, our lives--Western Civilization itself-- then I see further NER contributions as waste. I suspect, I know, others have a similar concern.
I perceive from others that you imagine yourself to be rather clever-cute, or cute-clever, Augustan, even, in your serene detachment from what concerns, or should concern, thoughtful persons at this parlous hour.
But in the end you are merely, full bore, a bore.
6 Jul 2007
ZZMike
Alfred seems imperfectly appreciative of your philosophizing. I wonder if he's conscious of his incivility.
According to Prof. Robertson , the notion of consciousness didn't come into the language until Mr Locke's "Essay Concerning Human Understanding". (I'm not done yet with the course. First, I read Locke.)
Speaking of your opening point, towards the end of the Mahabarata, when the last of the Pandavas finally makes his long and torturous way to the Pearly Gate equivalent,he's invited in, but says "your dog has to stay outside". Like any red-blooded Englishman (necessarily of the last century, not this), Yudhishitra replies, "if he isn't going in, neither am I". That little tale has a happier ending; it was all a test - the dog is actually Dharma and they all live happily ever after.
One interesting question is, why is there consciousness? Would we do just as well without it? Where does it go when we sleep? Is dreaming consciousness the same as waking?
I think part of the problem is that we confuse "conscious" with "conscious of" - and maybe a little of "conscience".
Can a machine ever experience consciousness? How would we know? Compare and contrast.
7 Jul 2007
Vishal Mehra
Cog-sci promises much but delivers little. Tell us a single insight that has emerged from this field.
About afterlife for dogs, it is hard to beat the speculative but still rigorous discussion in The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis.
20 Jul 2007
Frank
Reading Derb is like reading my own words if I was as smart and as well read. I too am fascinated by the mysteries of consciousness. I was absolutely enthralled by "GEB" and "I am a Strange Loop", or so my teetering bulb of dreads and dreams tells me.
-Frank
24 Jul 2007
Mark
Sorry to say it but what a meandering, meaningless article. Can anybody in their right mind, or conciousness, believe that a mosquito has a percentage of a soul, even if it is tiny. By what scientific method was this proportion determined? Trying to put a physical size on an essentially spritual dimension is so stupid one has to question whether there is an editorial policy on this site. Does this babble imply that you have less of a soul when you are asleep than when awake ? How could a supposedly educated person swallow such a moronic notion?
The simple question is whether you have a soul or not. It goes without saying that it will never be answered by biology. Fractional souls sounds like the worst sort of unintelligent appeasement.
The only interesting point in your article was that it made you think again of the Terry Schiavo case. The state sponsored premeditated murder of an innocent person should focus right thinking people to the dangers of wishy washy speculation on the human species that only results in the erosion of mankind's inalienable rights and dignity.
24 Jul 2007
Frank
Whoaaa now Mark, don't go embarrassing yourself.
Have you even read Hofstadter?
Look, Hofstadter is a very smart guy, and he has the credentials to prove it. You may disagree with him, you may have done some undisclosed research of your own, or you may simply be ingnorant. In any event to call them stupid is stupid. My suspicion is you haven't read the book. Do your self a big favor - read the book. Then see if you are able to say the man is stupid.
-Frank
8 Sep 2007
sam
blade of grass is somehow conscious of the sun . an insect is conscious of many more things. a dog is conscious of the results of his actions. chimpanzee with a mirrow will learn his face.we are higher on a list. probably those who practice meditation are like chimps with a mirrow in a cense that they somehow get to higher level. any form of life has to be coscious of its surroundings why dont we say that life is consciousness and consciousness is life?
