Thought today's smbc comic was too funny not to share. Source

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 1 point 1 month ago (2 children)

Because:

  1. Consciousness is a discrete phenomenon that exists, and not all things are conscious. A piece of paper, for example, is not conscious.

  2. A string of text can be used to represent any type of data. It would mean that every piece of data is a consciousness, which - if we assume item 1 to be true - cannot be true, as a piece of paper (which is not conscious) can hold the data.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    How did you determine that it's a discrete phenomenon? If I present you with another person, how do you determine if they're conscious or not?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

    It's a discrete phenomenon because my consciousness is not your consciousness. I do not have two consciousnesses at once. Each consciousness is separate from any others - hence, discrete.

    As for how I know another person is conscious?

    Consciousness is a documented phenomenon that has existed since before I existed. My lived experience matches documented evidence of consciousness, thus I can conclude that, by and large, humans are conscious, although I cannot determine directly whether or not another person is conscious without depending on their testament. They could be a philosophical zombie - a thing that has all outward behaviors of a conscious being without having a consciousness, including lying about having a conscious experience - but the likelihood is low.

  • source
  • parent