> Mario:
> Again,
> consciousness can be seen as a novel kind of experience which emerges
> from the combination of aware experience with language. This
> combination
> enables reflexive awareness (i.e. consciousness, as I would define it),
> which is a completely new experience. In other words, consciousness is
> the experience which follows from considering experience, as it becomes
> possible by the use of language.
>
> Alexei:
> I understand awareness as being ready to percieve external and internal
> signals/signs and to have behavioral models that can be launched
> after these signs are received. Thus, I would consider awareness even
> at the level of bacteria.
>
> Mario:
> I would call this experience (chemical interactions only), Maxine
> Sheets-Johnstone in the latest issue of J. Consciousness Studies calls
> this consciousness. So, as a bacteriologist, I would say that bacterial
> responsiveness basically does not differe from chemical responsiveness:
> We urgently need agreement on how we will use these terms or we can keep
> discussing and misunderstanding each other. This defining was the
> principal aim of the manuscript I wrote about it.
>
> Alexei:
> The next level would be reflexive awareness, which is modifying
> responce algorithms. This is the level of learning and consciousness.
> It is present in many insects and in most vertebrate animals.
> It does not necessary require any communication.
>
> The next level would be reflexive consciousness, i.e., modifying
> your learning habits by communication with other organisms.
> This can be called mind. Elements of mind can be found only in
> most intelligent mammals, and it is fully developed only in humans.
> Mind requires communication.
>
> And the next level is rationality, i.e., logic, science, economy.
>
> Most of this is written in the book of Valentin Turchin "The
> Phenomenon of Science" 1977.
>
> Mario: In my terms, all of this would be considered as awareness.
> With reflexive awareness I mean the possibility to consider the
> experience itself, as should be clear from the example. This kind of
> experience (reflexive awareness or consciousness) is not listed in your
> summary of Turchin.
In this discussion about awareness and consciousness, I'd like to do
my contribution too. I understand "awareness" as the ability to sense
and act in the environment. Supposing that this "sense and act" would
be used internally by the system to build a model of the environment,
I would reserve the term "consciousness" when in this model of
environment, the system reserves a space to model itself. I.e., a
system can be called conscious, only when it is able to "see" itself in
environment. What do you think about that ? (I am not being
original here, but I like this definition). Notice that this definition is
recursive, because if there is a model of myself in my mind, this model
should also include itself (the model), and this modelled model should
include
the model of the model, and so on. You then may talk about first
order, second order or higher orders of consciousness, if these
models really contains each others in a given depth. Remember that
a model doesn't need to represent ALL the characteristics of the
modeled thing, and then this recursion may stop at some level of depth.
Also, maybe you may split the term "awareness" into passive and active
awareness, being passive when only sensing the environment and
active when both sensing and acting.
Ricardo
--
//\\\
(o o)
+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-oOO--(_)--OOo-=-=-+
\ Prof. Ricardo Ribeiro Gudwin /
/ Intelligent Systems Development Group \
\ DCA - FEEC - UNICAMP | INTERNET /
/ Caixa Postal 6101 | gudwin@dca.fee.unicamp.br \
\ 13081-970 Campinas, SP | gudwin@fee.unicamp.br /
/ BRAZIL | gudwin@correionet.com.br \
+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+
\ URL: http://www.dca.fee.unicamp.br/~gudwin/ /
/ Telephones: +55 (19) 788-3819 DCA/Unicamp (University) \
\ +55 (19) 254-0184 Residencia (Home) /
/ FAX: +55 (19) 289-1395 \
+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+