Is a warm beer more intelligent?

Given that consciousness is energetic and causal and given David Chalmer’s Principle of Organization, does that entail that a warm bottle of beer is more intelligent than a cold one?

The POI holds that an appropriate configuration of information is necessary and sufficient for consciousness.  This relies on the Dual Aspect Theory of Information of Chalmer’s, that states that information, suitably arranged, has a felt, or qualic, nature as well as the informational one.  The atomic quantum theory holds that the interchange of two particles with identical state vectors changes no property or quality of that system, two like particles are indistinguishable.  Chalmer’s theory falls prey to arguments against functionalism, but a weak version of the POI might be salvageable.

Given that particles, electrons, atoms, photons, et cetera, are interchangeable and given that consciousness is associated with higher energy states of systems in the brain we see that the particular identity of each constituent of the system does not matter.  Also, while we move through space at an enormous velocity, our consciousness remains collocated with the body.  So the energy that consciousness uses to exert or sense, two contemporaneously, mutually exclusive options, is tied to or associated with particular material structures in the brain.

Thus, the weak POI holds that particles, atoms, molecules, et cetera, in an arrangement that looks like a brain give rise to consciousness.  Does this solve the problem of other minds?  What this weak version does not hold is that a system, say a domino arrangement, which, for arguments sake, we have set up to model the information flow in Thomas Hobbe’s brain while he was writing the first letter of the 42nd word on page 99 of of the first edition of Leviathan, when set in motion acquires the consciousness of Thomas Hobbes for that brief duration.  The domino set models the information but does not have the same qualitative (energetically speaking) properties as the arrangement of Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus, Sulfur, et cetera, that we find in the human brain.

This weak version of the POI relies on more that information.  The energetic structures which give rise to states which represent (!) the information much also be organised appropriately.  Here, then, we rescue the Dual Aspect Theory of Information, but the information is relegated to a limb of the duality.  The same energetic structure (matter in motion) gives rise to (i) an informational interpretation, and (ii) a proto-qualic state.  This information is strongly correlated to the felt, or qualic, state brought about by such and such energy levels associated with such and such components with the organisation of the human brain.

The Semantic Universe

Through deed, word, then thought, entities can establish communication. No matter what words are used, there is a difference between the letter and the spirit.

Though we all have but one life, our children may work towards keeping us in their existence.

In the spirit of openness, the attached proposal is here to sketch a concept, however, the implementation requires dedication and time.  The bona in fidele agreement of course would allow academic competition, but for any party to either acquire the source illegally or illicitly, or to use the document in a manner that would result in loss of income to OM Consulting Limited is, de natura, fidele in non bona.

Korero

[Addendum 25 05 2009]

After having been recommended to UBS NZ Limited by UBS AG in Basel, I, as Executive Director of OM Consulting Limited, approached their office in Auckland.  A month after not receiving a reply to my mail I went to their office, where the receptionist informed me that the proposal had been looked at and they would probably not be interested.

Alas, I shall have to establish the company in New York or Edinburgh.  Hopefully UBS AG has an office in Scotland or the willingness to appoint someone to run the company from Scotland or New York.  Unfortunately, with the standard of language and care in the United States Armed Services [read friendly fire incidents] I am currently unable to hire anyone not in the RNZAF or RAF.

Dharma and Personality

Wisdom is not consciousness.

Being a real realist about experience

Galen Strawson writes a target article and then replies to a number of included commentaries in Consciousness and its place in nature: does physicalism entail panpsychism? ISBN 1845400593. He concludes

this conscious comprehending of this thought is just a patch of complex neural activity

.

The Illusion of the Soul

I looked through some old bookmarks that I had saved. Here is an article, The Mystery of Consciousness which I found mostly interesting. The essay starts with a good description of the basic problem and goes on to discuss particular aspects of Humphrey’s book, as well as a conference on what the “I” having this thought is. He exercises an evolutionary “just so” story about consciousness – I’m not being overly critical, surely consciousness provides some evolutionary advantage.