Consciousness; proposed new research (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, June 18, 2015, 20:03 (3233 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: DHW PLEASE NOTE:
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> QUOTE: "Finally, it is quite a different question whether single cell-organisms, worms or other simple metazoans—vastly simpler than mammals with their large brains—have sentience. I do share with the letter writers a hunch that it may well be that “it feels like something to be a worm”. However, that is a question that right now can't be answered in any meaningful empirically accessible manner."
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> Sentience is a word that has been over-used and over-hyped, as this quote indicates. There are many levels of meaning of the word 'sentience', which simply means the ability to recognize stimuli.
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> dhw: If there are “many levels of meaning”, sentience doesn't “simply” mean the ability to recognize stimuli; it can also mean “awareness”, and the quotation goes even further, in the direction of self-awareness (“it feels like something to be a worm”). Not even experts like McClintock, Margulis, Albrecht-Bühler, Shapiro etc. claim human-type self-awareness for bacteria or worms. Without the ability to recognize stimuli (a definition I am quite happy to accept), no organism can survive, but these experts do not confine themselves to that ability: they also talk of cognition, intelligence, decision-making, cooperation, communication. Sentience can therefore be regarded as the attribute that provides the material on which intelligence works, whether in single-celled or multicellular organisms. You are clutching at lexical straws.-You have neatly bypassed the major observation in the quote: " However, that is a question that right now can't be answered in any meaningful empirically accessible manner."-Why do McM, Mar, A-B, and Shap all then add words like: "cognition, intelligence, decision-making, cooperation, communication" in view of the observation above. Clutch at the straws you want, but they are blowing up a concept of 'sentience' beyond all recognition. I repeat once again, most all the chemical reactions to provide reaction to stimuli are described. It is equivalent to my kidney constructing my urine with no thought from me. Sentience, by your own admission is a recognition of stimuli, but that meaning 'awareness' does not imply cognition, since automatic reactions can supply the same result, seen externally to the organism.