X-Message-Number: 7976
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 1997 22:16:06 -0800
From: Tim Freeman <>
Subject: Seat of consciousness?

I don't get all this talk about a "seat of consciousness" or a "seat
of feeling".  I'll agree that, given suitable definitions of
"consciousness" and "feeling", we might have to agree that these
things exist.  But do they have to have a "seat"?  

My computer computes, but I can't say which of those pesky transistors
is the seat of computation for the computer.  My bread machine makes
bread, but I can't say which cubic millimeter of machinery is the seat
of bread-making.  My car moves forward when I push the gas, but I
can't identify which part of the engine is the seat of forward-going.
I'm sitting on my chair, but do I have to have a seat of sitting?
(Maybe so on the last one.  :-)

So why do we need a seat of consciousness or a seat of feeling?
-- 
Tim Freeman       
            http://www.infoscreen.com/resume.html
Web-centered Java and Perl programming in Silicon Valley or offsite

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