X-Message-Number: 15931
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 13:42:52 -0800
From: Lee Corbin <>
Subject: Re: Is consciousness only 3000 years old?

George Smith wrote

> I have been re reading Princeton psychology professor
> Julian Jaynes' 1976  book "The Origin of Consciousness
> In The Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind".  I had forgotten
> what an amazing hypothesis he suggested and supported. In 
> essence, Jaynes proposed the idea that up until about 3000
> years ago, human beings were not conscious at all.

I too was very favorably impressed, and I should also
probably go back and read it again.  Especially since
our concept of what we mean by "consciousness" may have
drifted since that time.

But for re-animation, artificial intelligence, simulating
and emulating people, and a host of other current topics,
we might be forced to conclude, ...were we to buy into Jaynes'
definition of consciousness, that animals and very young
children aren't "conscious".  (And I'd probably disagree.)

I expect that whatever turns out to be the most important
concept in this area---whether we end up calling it
"awareness", "consciousness", or whatever, non-linguistic
entities will also prove to have it.  Also, that it will
track (loosely) an entity's ability to experience feelings.
That is, for example, primitive animals and AIs will be
said to be less capable of feeling than more advanced
versions, in line with our usual impression that they
are less aware.

I guess that this is the common-sense view.

Lee Corbin

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