From: "Tim Rhodes" <proftim@speakeasy.org> To: <virus@lucifer.com> Subject: Re: virus: kurzweil cuts the mustard Date sent: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 01:08:28 -0800 Send reply to: virus@lucifer.com
> Joe E. Dees wrote:
>
> >Objects are that which consciousness is conscious OF; even self-
> >consciousness is consciousness of a self-construction (a kind of
> >bootstrapped "straw self"), rather than of the self itself (for, to do
> >that, it would have to include the intending as well as the intended
> >self, and the flashlight of consciousness cannot illuminate itself (or,
> >rather,the recursive and self-referential snake must eat its tail, but
> >cannot consume its own mouth).
>
> To my mind, consciousness is the forte and delicate construct of, what I
> like to call, the Self-that-does-the-Talking. This little guy gets a lot of
> P.R. and one might even be led to believe that he runs the whole show. (If
> you were to take _his_ word for it, that is.) So much so that many people
> quite often seem amazed to learn that he is not only (A) only one of many
> Selves inhabiting our wondrous little brains, but (B) is actually not really
> even the one whose always in charge, and rather, simply that annoying guy
> with the megaphone who keeps taking the credit for everything about 1/30
> second after anyone else does it.
>
> The Self-that-does-the-Talking would, of course, have you believe that he is
> the most important Self in any brain, and that his presence is a necessary
> element of any enlightened and highly evolved mind. Consciousness (or at
> least the ablilty to _claim_ that one is conscious ;-) is his hallmark and
> thus he will tell you it is the Holy Grail of all Knowledge and the most
> important aspect of any being.
>
> But since he is, after all, the one whose been telling you all this in the
> first place, what else could one expect him to say was important?
>
> -Prof. Tim,
> amused that birds have also been found to dream, when not trading memes with
> their peers.
>
A professor of mine once said that he would become prolife as soon
as embryoes and fetuses organized to circulate petitions demanding
personal rights. I will keep believing that the self-important rhetoric
of the Self-That-Does-All-The-Talking is reasonable until I hear any
different from any of the others. ;~) Joe