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Full Idea
Apparently it is just a fact of biology that organisms that have consciousness have, in general, much greater powers of discrimination than those that do not.
Gist of Idea
Conscious creatures seem able to discriminate better
Source
John Searle (The Rediscovery of the Mind [1992], Ch. 4.III)
Book Ref
Searle,John R.: 'The Rediscovery of the Mind' [MIT 1999], p.108
A Reaction
This presupposes knowledge of which creatures are conscious. Clearly colour vision gives more information than monochrome vision. But presumably a computer could process more visual information than I could see. It doesn't have a fovea centralis.
| 17212 | To understand is the absolute virtue of the mind [Spinoza] |
| 20115 | All of our normal mental life could be conducted without consciousness [Nietzsche] |
| 20117 | Only the need for communication has led to consciousness developing [Nietzsche] |
| 7155 | Consciousness exists to the extent that consciousness is useful [Nietzsche] |
| 7143 | Consciousness is a 'tool' - just as the stomach is a tool [Nietzsche] |
| 5809 | Some activities are performed better without consciousness of them [Dretske] |
| 3470 | Conscious creatures seem able to discriminate better [Searle] |
| 4271 | There is consciousness whenever behaviour must be explained in terms of mental activity [Scruton] |
| 2412 | Can we explain behaviour without consciousness? [Chalmers] |
| 4941 | Consciousness can create new axioms, but computers can't do that [Edelman/Tononi] |
| 9780 | Consciousness is a malfunction of evolution [Zizek] |
| 4741 | A very powerful computer might have its operations restricted by the addition of consciousness [Clark,T] |