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At what point does it immerge? What is the smallest unit? Is it a magic number of neurons, or when they get arranged in a certain way? There's a mystery in the
by roberttod 5y ago
At what point does it immerge? What is the smallest unit? Is it a magic number of neurons, or when they get arranged in a certain way?
There's a mystery in these questions, and I think that's well accepted. I've heard this "emergent property" explanation before but it seems kind of a handwavey way of avoiding answering any questions. "It just appears when you have enough neurons" is probably true but how?!
- Koshkin 5y agoThe "degree" of consciousness is certainly a function of the number of neurons functionally specialized for this particular purpose.
- denton-scratch 5y agoIs your "certainly" analogous to the way young folk today use the word "literally"?
- Koshkin 5y agoAs in "no doubt."
- edanm 5y ago> "It just appears when you have enough neurons" is probably true but how?! Then you don't disagree with parent. You're saying that we don't know enough to fully explain consciousness, which I think everyone would agree with. Parent is just saying that our not understanding it is not because there's something outside of the known laws of physics that we're missing - we just don't know to understand how the laws of physics give rise to consciousness, but they do.