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If materialism is true, the United States is probably conscious

35 points · 103 comments · ashergill

delichon · 1789739821 · focus · HN ↗
No individual wrote the Constitution. It was a collective effort. Yet it has features of a work we would expect from a consciousness, such as a view of itself as embedded in a larger historical context. I don't have a hard time seeing that document as a form of speech emitted by a conscious collective. And not knowing exactly how human individual consciousness works, it isn't very clear whether such collective consciousness is a metaphor or an example. Especially when individual consciousness seems to emerge from a collective of neurons.
1. randallsquared · 1789910114 · focus · HN ↗
  You and a co-author can write an essay together, in a room, in an hour. Let's assume you each write about half of the essay, and cooperate to edit it into a coherent whole. You and the other person were definitely people during this process. Is there any sense in which you believe there was a non-metaphorical third person in the room during that hour?
  1. slopinthebag · 1789978744 · focus · HN ↗
    yes in the same sense that the organisation of football players forms the concept of a team which has properties distinct from each individual player

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