7 ms·
Consciousness is not observable. Gravity is.
by malka 5y ago
Consciousness is not observable. Gravity is.
- bsenftner 5y agoWe observe our own consciousness all the time. It's just that your consciousness is closed to all but you.
- berndi 5y agoAny reasonable definition of "observing" presupposes a conscious observer and it is possible for you to observe yourself being conscious (I assume). Indeed, consciousness is observable in a much more direct sense than gravity.
- goatlover 5y agoYes, but you can't observer other people's consciousness, only infer it. This is a problem when it comes to animals, infants, intelligent machines and coma patients. Or aliens if we ever made contact.
- Isinlor 5y agoYou can observe, in principle, other people consciousness. Brain conjoined-twins can do it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craniopagus_twins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craniopagus_twins For example, there are twins that can see with each other eyes or feel each other body. You could try, in principle, to create a chimera from your brain and a brain of some other animal.
- lisper 5y ago> there are twins that can see with each other eyes or feel each other body That's not the same as directly observing someone else's consciousness. That's just two people sharing some I/O devices. In fact, one could argue that the inability to directly observe another consciousness is a necessary condition for being an individual: the limits of your direct observation is the definition of where "you" stop and the rest of the universe (including other people) begins.
- Isinlor 5y agoIt is not just sharing I/O devices. Brain conjoined twins can also share their mental states. They do experience each other qualia [0]. > Though Krista and Tatiana Hogan share a brain, the two girls showed distinct personalities and behavior. One example was when Krista started drinking her juice Tatiana felt it physically going through her body. In any other set of twins the natural conclusion about the two events would be that Krista's drinking and Tatiana's reaction would be coincidental. But because Krista and Tatiana are connected at their heads, whatever the girls do they do it together. I also recall examples where one girl does not like eating something and so the other girl can not eat it because the other can feel it. Concept of an individual is not a fundamental property of the universe. It is an emergent, fluid and complex concept. There are people with multiple personality disorders. There are brain conjoined twins. There are people with severed corpus callosum. E.g. here is report about one person [1]: > After the right and left brain are separated, each hemisphere will have its own separate perception, concepts, and impulses to act. Having two "brains" in one body can create some interesting dilemmas. When one split-brain patient dressed himself, he sometimes pulled his pants up with one hand (that side of his brain wanted to get dressed) and down with the other (this side did not). He also reported to have grabbed his wife with his left hand and shaken her violently, at which point his right hand came to her aid and grabbed the aggressive left hand. However, such conflicts are very rare. If a conflict arises, one hemisphere usually overrides the other. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craniopagus_twins#Media https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craniopagus_twins#Media [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-brain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-brain
- collyw 5y agoYou can observe your own consciousness.