Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!pacbell.com!ucsd!sdd.hp.com!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!samsung!uunet!tdatirv!sarima From: sarima@tdatirv.UUCP (Stanley Friesen) Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy Subject: Re: Definition of (was Re: Testing for []) consciousness Message-ID: <38@tdatirv.UUCP> Date: 23 Oct 90 15:00:06 GMT References: <27608@usc.edu> <1990Oct22.150143.13858@canon.co.uk> Reply-To: sarima@tdatirv.UUCP (Stanley Friesen) Organization: Teradata Corp., Irvine Lines: 29 In article <1990Oct22.150143.13858@canon.co.uk> rjf@canon.co.uk writes: >Assuming we are overloading consciousness to mean also the capacity for >it, which is more correctly termed sentience: Wow, do our definitions differ. I consider sentience to be an aspect or phase of intelligence, and to be largely independent of awareness. (The dictionary lists 'aware' as a near synonym for 'conscious') >Actually, I think some AI people are resistant to this definition not >because it upsets their professional picture, but because it upsets >their personal picture -- as it does those of most of us. It is so >radical that it takes a long time to sink in. (You mean there really >is something which is *completely* subjective??) Though perhaps longer >for some than for others! ;-) Hey, how this for a simple defintion of conscious - 'having subjective experiences' or 'undergoing a subjective experience'. :-) But seriously folks, according to my dictionary the basic definition of consciousness appears to be 'thoughtful, deliberate perception or realization', or 'awareness with understanding'. The secondary meanings include the capacity for the above, the opposite of unconscious, and behavior based on the above type of awareness. This is not really so very esoteric, or even unique. We just have this type of 'behavior' more than most other anmals. -- --------------- uunet!tdatirv!sarima (Stanley Friesen)