Consciousness; research says insects have it (Introduction)

by dhw, Tuesday, July 05, 2016, 13:24 (3062 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: You have completely ignored this anomaly, which my proposal resolves: the researchers clearly think the ants do it consciously, but since they think consciousness is impossible without brains, they must assume bacteria do it unconsciously. You accept ants' consciousness, but it makes no difference, because you think both ants and bacteria have to be preprogrammed or personally instructed by God anyway. - DAVID: Not entirely. A foraging ant can choose to go in any direction he wishes. That is free conscious activity. He will then come back and touching antennae tell the others where to find the food. God is not guiding. - The context was “farming”, not whether to turn left or right! Do you believe your God preprogrammed ants to farm aphids, personally instructed them, or gave them the intelligence to work it all out for themselves? - dhw: My proposal above (in bold) resolves the anomaly whereby the researchers think unconscious organisms can produce the same results as conscious organisms, while you think none of them produce the results consciously (though ants are conscious)
DAVID: Answered above. - Not answered. See above. - dhw: NB: Dualism does not depend on how much brain you have. Either the brain is the source or it is not. If it is not, either consciousness is immaterial or it may have other possible material sources (this might tie in with some forms of panpsychism).
DAVID: Agreed. Except consciousness does not have a material source unless totally neuron dependent for which there is no evidence. - In that case, it must be possible for brainless organisms to have consciousness.