The best I can do is point to something that is conscious (such as myself) and say “conscious” and then point to something that seems unlikely to be conscious (such as a rock) and say “not conscious.”
That’s not enough to be able to meaningfully answer the question “If one’s consciousness suddenly became a totally different one, we know of no quantum particles that would change”.
Practically I can distinguish a state where my heartbeat is within my conscious awareness from the state where it isn’t. I can also distinguish the state where the heartbeat of another person is within my awareness and isn’t.
I can distinguish between having the person sitting next to me in a lecture within my awareness and not having them within my awareness.
In both cases there are practical consequences. Likely consequences that you haven’t observed because you don’t have control over the different states and therefore can’t experiment with it.
Again, I can’t really describe consciousness, so I’ll give a example. Computers are aware of the user’s keystrokes, as in there is some signal in the computer that is formed by keystrokes and processed accordingly, but the computer isn’t necessarily conscious.
My body is always aware of it’s heart beat the same way that a computer is always aware of the users keystrokes.
That’s not the awareness I’m talking about. I’m talking about conscious awareness where it’s possible to be aware of the heart beat and possible not to be.
That’s not enough to be able to meaningfully answer the question “If one’s consciousness suddenly became a totally different one, we know of no quantum particles that would change”.
Practically I can distinguish a state where my heartbeat is within my conscious awareness from the state where it isn’t. I can also distinguish the state where the heartbeat of another person is within my awareness and isn’t.
I can distinguish between having the person sitting next to me in a lecture within my awareness and not having them within my awareness.
In both cases there are practical consequences. Likely consequences that you haven’t observed because you don’t have control over the different states and therefore can’t experiment with it.
I don’t follow. Why are you talking about conscious awareness?
What do you think consciousness is about when it’s not about being aware and perceiving something?
Again, I can’t really describe consciousness, so I’ll give a example. Computers are aware of the user’s keystrokes, as in there is some signal in the computer that is formed by keystrokes and processed accordingly, but the computer isn’t necessarily conscious.
My body is always aware of it’s heart beat the same way that a computer is always aware of the users keystrokes.
That’s not the awareness I’m talking about. I’m talking about conscious awareness where it’s possible to be aware of the heart beat and possible not to be.
Yes, I think I’m thinking about the same type of consciousness/awareness you are. Where were we going with this?
Then why are you speaking about the way a computer is aware about all keystrokes that the keyboard sends? That’s not what I’m talking about.
The keystroke example was to demonstrate what I didn’t mean when I said consciousness.
Okay, sorry on that part.