Part of the brain’s function is to provide output to itself. Consequently, even though I would be quite happy saying C-3PO is conscious, I wouldn’t be so quick to say that about a GLUT.
Still, it seems remarkable to me that everyone is treating consciousness as an either/or. Homo sapiens gradually became conscious after species that weren’t. Infants gradually become conscious after a fertilized egg that was not. Let us put essentialism to rest.
And as an aside, I would state roughly that an organism is conscious iff it has theory of mind. That is, consciousness is ToM applied to oneself.
Part of the brain’s function is to provide output to itself. Consequently, even though I would be quite happy saying C-3PO is conscious, I wouldn’t be so quick to say that about a GLUT.
Still, it seems remarkable to me that everyone is treating consciousness as an either/or. Homo sapiens gradually became conscious after species that weren’t. Infants gradually become conscious after a fertilized egg that was not. Let us put essentialism to rest.
And as an aside, I would state roughly that an organism is conscious iff it has theory of mind. That is, consciousness is ToM applied to oneself.