5 ideas
4741 | A very powerful computer might have its operations restricted by the addition of consciousness [Clark,T] |
Full Idea: It seems possible that if a powerful multi-tasking computer was then given consciousness, this might restrict its operations instead of enhancing them. | |
From: Tom Clark (talk [2003]), quoted by PG - Db (ideas) | |
A reaction: A nice thought, because it challenges the usual view - that consciousness brings huge intellectual liberty to a mind, and that a mind without it is necessarily restricted. Maybe consciousness is a bottleneck. |
1394 | Can the mental elements of a 'bundle' exist on their own? [Carruthers] |
Full Idea: If the mind is merely a bundle of states and events, it must be logically possible for the various elements of the bundle to exist on their own. | |
From: Peter Carruthers (Introducing Persons [1986], 2.iii (A)) | |
A reaction: Depends how literally you take the bundle metaphor, and how much you are worried about 'logical' possibility (which only seems to mean imaginable). The answers to these questions do not have to be all-or-nothing. |
1395 | Why would a thought be a member of one bundle rather than another? [Carruthers] |
Full Idea: What makes it true that a particular thought or experience is a member of one bundle rather than another? | |
From: Peter Carruthers (Introducing Persons [1986], 2.iii (B)) | |
A reaction: I'm not sure if you can answer this nice question without mentioning values. The mental events in are in my bundle because they matter to me (because they are related to my body, for which I am responsible). Compare picking my possessions out of a pile. |
1396 | We identify persons before identifying conscious states [Carruthers] |
Full Idea: We can have no conception of the particularity of conscious states prior to, and independently of, a conception of a particularity of persons. | |
From: Peter Carruthers (Introducing Persons [1986], 2.iii (C)) | |
A reaction: agrees with Butler |
7903 | The six perfections are giving, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, and wisdom [Nagarjuna] |
Full Idea: The six perfections are of giving, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, and wisdom. | |
From: Nagarjuna (Mahaprajnaparamitashastra [c.120], 88) | |
A reaction: What is 'morality', if giving is not part of it? I like patience and vigour being two of the virtues, which immediately implies an Aristotelian mean (which is always what is 'appropriate'). |