"We now understand how very complex and even apparently intelligent phenomena, such as genetic coding, the immune system, and low-level visual processing, can be accomplished without a trace of consciousness. But this seems to uncover an enormous puzzle of just what, if anything, consciousness is for. Can a conscious entity do anything for itself that an unconscious (but cleverly wired up) simulation of that entity couldn't do for itself?"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from the United StatesPhilosophers from the United StatesNon-fiction authors from the United StatesBiographers from the United StatesCognitive scientists
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
"The Evolution of Consciousness," Consciousness and Emotion in Cognitive Science: Conceptual and Empirical Issues (1998) ed. Josefa Toribio & Andy Clark
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Dennett
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Related Quotes
"Wherever there is a conscious mind, there is a point of view. A conscious mind is an observer, who takes in the infor…"
"Biology is Engineering"
"As Akins observes, it is not the point of our sensory systems that they should detect "basic" or "natural" properties…"
"I have grown accustomed to the disrespect expressed by some of the participants for their colleagues in the other dis…"
"But if we ask where precisely in the brain that point of view is located, the simple assumptions that work so well on…"
"from Chapter 1, "Is Nothing Sacred", p. 21-22:"
"The fundamental core of contemporary Darwinism, the theory of DNA-based reproduction and evolution, is now beyond dis…"
"Experience teaches...that there is no such thing as a thought experiment so clearly presented that no philosopher can…"
"In a Thumbnail Sketch here is [the Multiple Drafts theory of consciousness] so far:There is no single, definitive "st…"
"We live in a world that is subjectively open. And we are designed by evolution to be "informavores," epistemically hu…"