Thread

1. card_zero · 1789740703 · focus · HN ↗

   That's fine, but I'm a materialist and I don't think rabbits are conscious, so the whole thing falls apart. I'm down with Descartes, I think they're just a kind of proteinaceous Roombas, be they never so sweet. I don't think they have a clue what's going on, or any true ideas in their heads (probably rabbit memes though). So in my conception of consciousness, which is self-awareness, entailing understanding and explanations, they aren't conscious. Of course if you want to make consciousness into something more basic like reaction to a stimulus then sure, a rabbit is conscious, and so is the US, and a slime mold, and possibly a rock, since it will fall down when prodded. You could actually manufacture an argument for the United States being properly self-aware and understanding itself! But this isn't it. Besides, nobody really understands the United States.

   1. someguynamedq · 1789753484 · focus · HN ↗

      The brain of a rabbit is many orders of magnitude closer to a human than the USA or a rock. Do you really think the specific form of human cognition is core to the definition of consciousness? This seems like an arbitrary place to draw the line, especially since you define qualia as central to consciousness. Human cognition is less clearly tied innately to qualia than the feelings we may have in conjunction with that cognition

      1. randallsquared · 1789912031 · focus · HN ↗

         Rabbits are closer than a rock to a human, but clearly something is missing from the rabbit that (waking, socialized) humans have. A core part of phenomenal consciousness is being able to think about the fact that you are an awareness separate from your surroundings. Exactly what it is that humans have that rabbits do not, in the physical sense of what causes this awareness of awareness, is not as clear.

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.