Consciousness

[H20nly]

so when i believe i'm a plant, do i downgrade my consciousness or turn it off entirely?

[artpunk]

Florence Nightingale developed the graphic representation of statistics in the form of pie charts. She was probably conscious when she did.

[H20nly]

was she in a plant-like state of consciousness?

[andydes]

Well, there's some big words, Funken. Not really sure what it means.

I guess, I'm more convinced by people who stick electrodes into things to see if they twitch. I'm not happy about that, by the way. I'm just a numbers guy. Sorry.

[H20nly]

it's supported by the uber class proletarian sector of the anti-trust structure modeled after the right wing left side forward leaning back stance of the rhetorical many.

this has, of course, been proliferated by the radical plant movement.

[artpunk]

I dig Heidegger, but I've got no regard for Kierkegaard...

[artpunk]

I dig Heidegger, but I've got no regard for Kierkegaard...

Oh great, a nazi.

Really? You can tell that by 10 words? No, lyrics from one of my brothers tongue in cheek songs. Say it out loud, it rhymes - I can't believe I even have to explain this...

[artpunk]

I dig Heidegger, but I've got no regard for Kierkegaard...

Oh great, a nazi.

I suppose you thought Mel Brooks was a Nazi because he thought up "Spring Time for Hitler too?

[artpunk]

Heidegger was a Nazi

Socrates is mortal. Cats are mortal. Therefore Socrates is a Cat.
Someone posts something about Digging Heidegger in a Forum. Heidegger was a Nazi. Therefore someone is a Nazi.
Say it out loud..
I dig Heidegger...but I've got no regard for Kierkegaard ...see? Easy? No-one needs to be a Nazi (except for Heidegger) you just need to have a sense of the absurd, which, seeing as you are posting in this forum, I thought you had!

ah, I see you have posted multiple replies whilst I wrote this (it is 0540 in the morning here, I'm very slow after being up all night) re: I didn't say you were. thanks I didn't think I was...so please ignore everything above, except I do quite like the concept that of a cat named Socrates, which could then be put in a box and subjected to an experiment where it could be proven to be alive and dead at the same time.. Brooks? Oh yes, of course anything dreamonn says must be true, he's a very clever boy.

edited to make completely no sense at all, because I am a plant.

[crumhorn]

A lovely little thinker but a bugger when he's pissed

[andydes]

Well, I still think Volkswagons are pretty cool.

If Marx ever came up with a car, I guess it was a bit crap.

Sorry, what were we talking about again?

[Machinesworking]

Consciousness is a rabbit hole, a poorly defined description of our own love for our inner thoughts, and our incessant desire to make those thoughts into something larger than death. It's in my opinion a concept derived from of a sort of intellectual vanity that of course crosses over into religion and politics, two areas of human endeavor that are ripe for bombastic, egomaniacal, emotional, and intellectual treachery.

[artpunk]

Therefore you, I assert, are a cat.

I feel strangely dead, yet so alive at the same time! Schrödinger was a beetle! Surfing collapsing probability waves one must be careful not to wipeout...
Q: Why di the chicken tin lid?
A: Because there's no bones in ice-cream.

[Forge.]

Heidegger was a boozy beggar who could think you under the table

[Forge.]

And then came the great Gregory Bateson.

Highly recommended!:

Amazon.com: Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology: Gregory Bateson: Books

Amazon.com: Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity (Advances in Systems Theory, Complexity, and the Human Sciences): Gregory Bateson: Books

one of the comments puts it nicely:

This classic work by Gregory Bateson deserves to be read by anyone seriously interested in cognitive science, artificial intelligence, evolutionary biology, epistemology, philosophy (in particular, logic), or any related field. Bateson illustrates in brilliant fashion a number of key concepts which "every schoolboy should know", but which, unfortunately, have escaped the notice of a wide variety of philosophers and scientists---if not every schoolboy, certainly every professional scientist and philosopher should be familiar with this work, whether they agree with it or not.

The basic ideas behind his work are subtle, yet Bateson does an excellent job of describing them clearly. In the process he manages to present and lucidly explain a wonderful solution to the mind-body problem which requires no supernatural forces, yet accounts very clearly for our intuitive perception that mind is in some sense non-physical. His information-theoretic approach is profound yet simple. His ideas touch upon many very deep issues, ranging from the definition of mental process itself to the logical distinctions between different levels of logical type, and also clearly illustrates and explains the origin of some of the major problems in formal logic, including why self-referential paradoxes arise in formal logical systems, and what this says about the limitations of these systems (and how one can get around these problems!). The work touches on many different aspects of many seemingly unrelated fields, and ties them together with a set of powerful and yet graspable abstractions which allow you to re-frame with clarity some of the greatest philosophical problems mankind has faced. It is a wonderful, poetic, and yet starkly rational approach which deserves to be read by every serious student of modern thought.

...

This book is an excellent introduction to Bateson's work and thought, and should be required reading for many college courses in different departments.

Amazon.com: Angels Fear: Towards An Epistemology Of The Sacred (Advances in Systems Theory, Complexity, and the Human Science): Gregory Bateson, Mary Catherine Bateson: Books


The pattern that connects…

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http://www.oliversacks.com/

http://www.oliversacks.com/books/man-wh ... -his-wife/

http://www.oliversacks.com/books/anthro ... t-on-mars/

thanks for this, will check out

I read half of Oliver Sachs' book on Music but it had to go back to the library... very interesting though