Free Will: Excellent discussion (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, February 21, 2015, 20:09 (3563 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: You are right. Many eminent scientists telling us that bacteria are sentient beings does not prove that they are sentient. But how do you know that what looks sentient is not? A Martian observer studying human beings would have the same problem, and many humans also argue that although we may believe we think our own thoughts and make our own decisions, our thoughts and decisions are actually made for us by factors beyond our control. Perhaps we should keep an open mind.-You've raised the philosophic issue of I can only presume your consciousness is like mine. your color red is like mine. I repeat, bacteria can look sentient if the instructions in DNA are complete enough, but really the bacteria are automatic. That is my view.
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> dhw: Even within your own hypothesis there has to be a borderline between the automatic and the sentient, since you acknowledge sentience in our fellow animals. According to my “favourite” scientists, it goes as far back as bacteria. Would you perhaps be prepared to accept it as from the advent of multicellularity?-At the Cambrian level, yes. Reznick's guppies show it.