Dualism (Identity)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Wednesday, March 11, 2015, 20:42 (3324 days ago) @ dhw

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> TONY: These conversations kind of make my head hurt because we start swinging all over the map, partly because no one really sets up any definitions and sticks with them throughout the conversation.
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>DHW: The problem of consciousness makes most heads hurt! The framework you've given us is very stimulating, although as a non-technical ignoramus, I'm never at ease with computer analogies. I need to give it some more thought, but perhaps you could start me on my way by explaining what your “external user” and “third party independent interpreter” are analogous to in the two sentences below:
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> TONY: To use my old computer analogy, the hardware is one requirement, but without some form of external power and external user, the hardware is useless. [...] Yet, without any of these components, along with a third party independent interpreter, all of the energy, hardware, and information are useless.-When you by a computer from the store it comes with a basic operating system. That operating system doesn't really do much. It runs the machinery and provides you with some basic functionality, that is about it. In order for the computer to do anything useful, it needs to receive input from, and operated by, a user. That user is akin to consciousness. The user not only makes decisions for the computer as to how it is operated, configured, and what programs it has installed, but it is also the user that interprets the output from the computer. The computer does all the grunt work. It takes all the raw data and processes it and returns it to the user in a form that the user can interpret and use. Without the user, the computer does nothing but maintain, much like a person in a coma.

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.