Reciprocating Bill
Posts: 4265
Joined: Oct. 2006
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Uncommonly Denyse doesn't disappoint. From her aptly named blog "Mindful Hack" (as she certainly is a hack):
| Quote | | ...if you believe that consciousness is not an illusion and that it can initiate action, you can readily account for the hostility that a person (or dog or cat, for that matter) perceives toward a new favorite. An intelligent life form perceives benefits lost and reacts accordingly. No further explanation in the form of a mechanism is needed because the perception itself drives the process. Moreover, the life form's behaviour can be interpreted without reference to the question of whether any genes get passed on. |
So, Mr. Intelligence and Mr. Consciousness are these - somethings* - that perceive, reason, calculate gains and losses, and react, with no underlying basis in neural activity, or anything else. They perceive and react out of conscious perception. That's the explanation. No need for further 'splanation, because they are conscious, and intelligent. And NO need for Mr. Gooey Stuff.
I await her description of where and how Mr. Consciousness harvests, say, visual information from Mr. Gooey Stuff. Does he watch little movies on the backs of our retinas (this would explain why the retina is wired backward - so Mr. Consciousness can watch the goings on outside.) At the thalami? At V1? Frontal lobes? Backal lobes?
Also, U-Denyse needs a description of how Mr. Consciousness and Mr. Intelligence, after consulting Mr. Perception, work together to make Mr. Gooey's muscles wiggle. Do they tickle motor plans within the midbrain? Toggle neurons along the motor strip? Diddle ganglia within the spine? Or just push and shove arms and legs directly?
Mother of God, what does she think that Mr. Gooey Stuff is DOING in there? Well, in the case of Uncommonly Denyse, not much. But in OTHER skulls, what is he doing THERE?
What kills me about this position is that advocates of ID, on one hand, argue that the human brain is an instance of IC that couldn't have arisen by means of natural selection, and, on the other, that the brain has nothing to do with human consciousness and cognition. Without batting an eye.
(You can't beat stuff like this on your best day, Dave.)
*Detachable ghosts.
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Myth: Something that never was true, and always will be.
"The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you."
- David Foster Wallace
"Here’s a clue. Snarky banalities are not a substitute for saying something intelligent. Write that down."
- Barry Arrington
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