# Conciousness **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [June 17, 1999, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conciousness/110 "1999-06-17T18:33:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 1999, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conciousness/110/1 "1999-06-17T18:33:00Z")
I’m afraid this column completely misses the boat. Thinking is not conciousness. Conciousness is an awareness. For example, a sleepwalking person may may hold a conversation with you, or may perform other tasks which clearly require thinking, but they are not concious, that is, they are not aware of what they are doing. Intelligence tests - whether Turing tests, SATs, or whatever other mental challenges you devise - do nothing to test awareness; you can build an arbitrarily complicated machine which is in all measurable ways smarter than humans, one which positively drips with the Essence of Thought, but you still don’t know if it is concious. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 1999, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conciousness/110/2 "1999-06-17T18:45:00Z")
Yeah, you know YOU’RE conscious, but what about the schlub in the next cubicle? If you ask certain questions, and get certain answers, you may reasonbly conclude that he’s consciuous, but he might not think so. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 1999, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conciousness/110/3 "1999-06-17T19:36:00Z")
:: singing ::: give a little whistle (wheet-wheet), give a little whistle (wheet-whoot), and always let your conscious be your guide Yes, yes, I know, it’s a pun, a play on words. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 1999, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conciousness/110/4 "1999-06-17T19:55:00Z")
How do you know a sleepwaling person is not conscious? All we know is that they have no memory of consciousness during the sleepwalking. If conscious activity is not imprinted on the memory in some way - how could you tell a person was conscious? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 1999, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conciousness/110/5 "1999-06-17T23:04:00Z")
Lance is on the right track. The discussion of computers is an interesting diversion. “Conciousness is the faculty of awareness - the faculty of perceiving that which exists. … Directly of indirectly, every phenomenon of consciousness is derived from one’s awareness of the external world. Some object, i.e. some content, is involved in every state of awareness… A content-less state of awareness is a contradiction in terms.” Introduction to Objectivist Epsitemology, Ayn Rand. Obviously what I quote here is a very superficial treatment. If you want to read the most well-thought-out and comprehensive work on conciousness on the market, I suggest the above book. It is a serious read but well worth it ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 1999, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conciousness/110/6 "1999-06-24T12:21:00Z")
AI is the basis for more movies and books then you can shake a mouse at. You got to realize the importants of it. Think of what terminator 1 & 2 were about and you’ll get the picture. Imagine if you were trying out your new PC and it realized it was a PC. Would you have the right to turn it off ? It knows it is it like you know you’re you. What if it got scared you would turn it off and it tryed to find a way to turn you off first. Conciousness Might just be awareness. who knows what all is aware. Do whales and dolfins laugh at us or perhaps cry for us? Do trees observe us with wonder? Does a flower enjoy the wind fondling it on a warm summer day? To think the way we see things is more accurate or real then what others see is nearsighted at best. Bees can see ultaviolet which is beyond our visible spectrum. dogs and other animals can hear things far higher or lower then our range. It doesn’t make there perception of reality less acurate but more. ranges above and below our sinces are there we just can’t percieve them without special tools. Some creatures may hear colors and see sounds. they may know alot more about whats going on then us. We might be shocked to see there reality. I am concious because I think I am. They might think they are too. * * * Shiningnight