From owner-cse575-fa07-list@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Wed Nov 14 22:16:10 2007 Received: from ares.cse.buffalo.edu (ares.cse.buffalo.edu [128.205.32.79]) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.10) with ESMTP id lAF3GA7X001309 for ; Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:16:10 -0500 (EST) Received: from front3.acsu.buffalo.edu (coldfront.acsu.buffalo.edu [128.205.6.89]) by ares.cse.buffalo.edu (8.13.8/8.13.6) with SMTP id lAF3G55e040768 for ; Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:16:05 -0500 (EST) Received: (qmail 20771 invoked from network); 15 Nov 2007 03:16:00 -0000 Received: from deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.57) by front3.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 15 Nov 2007 03:16:00 -0000 Received: (qmail 19835 invoked from network); 15 Nov 2007 03:15:58 -0000 Received: from listserv.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.35) by deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 15 Nov 2007 03:15:58 -0000 Received: by LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 14.5) with spool id 4603328 for CSE575-FA07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU; Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:15:56 -0500 Delivered-To: CSE575-FA07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Received: (qmail 25239 invoked from network); 15 Nov 2007 03:15:55 -0000 Received: from mailscan7.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.6.158) by listserv.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 15 Nov 2007 03:15:55 -0000 Received: (qmail 11971 invoked by uid 60001); 15 Nov 2007 03:15:55 -0000 X-Mailer: University at Buffalo WebMail Cyrusoft SilkyMail v1.1.11 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Originating-IP: 128.205.56.147 X-UB-Relay: (internal) X-PM-EL-Spam-Prob: XX: 26% Message-ID: <1195096555.473bb9eb0d481@mail4.buffalo.edu> Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:15:55 -0500 Reply-To: "Youngjin 'Sung' Kang" Sender: Introduction to Cognitive Science From: "Youngjin 'Sung' Kang" Subject: My Opinion about Consciousness To: CSE575-FA07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Precedence: list List-Help: , List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Owner: List-Archive: X-DCC-Buffalo.EDU-Metrics: castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU 1335; Body=0 Fuz1=0 Fuz2=0 X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.5 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.1.8 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.8 (2007-02-13) on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.91.2/4730/Fri Nov 9 15:11:17 2007 on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Status: Clean Status: RO Content-Length: 7939 Hi! Everyone!! Here is my opinion about cognitive aspect of 'consciousness'!! Here, computer chess game argument is also extended to explain 'Consciousness'!! Have a nice day!! * Please do not read, if you are busy and not interested. * Please do not be offended by diffrent idea, because it is just my personal opinion. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Reading the part of Thgard's 'Mind', which cover the issue of 'Consciousness', there introduced a couple of methodology to explain human consciousness. They are biological and electrical way, and chemical mechanism. In fact, I am pretty relived to find there is no functional way to explain the consciousness in the book, because what I have personally had in my mind to explain consciousness is more or less 'functional'. Thus, my insight seems to be pretty novel idea. As far as the consciousness is function, I have to explain what kind of function consciousness do for human cognition and activity, and in order to that, I have to show the differences between the cognition and activity with consciousness and those without it. I do not remember which book I got it from, anyway there are one quote in my memory explaining consciousness as "consciousness is awareness". I understand which point is tried to be explained in this quote about consciousness, however it seem more like another circular argument than scientific explanatory. In my personal lexical terminology, there is not much difference between two words. Also, some explanation of consciousness using death, coma and concussion especially in the book is not so good methodology to explain consciousness in cognitive science, because these are actually the state 'without cognition'. More plausible explanation is how different conscious cognition than unconscious cognition. Here is some interesting anecdote about answering this question and it will give us meaningful insight. When I am doing any computer game against computer opponent, I often get to notice the fact that the computer opponent is very different from human opponent of such a game in some way. As long as we measure the technique and skill of the game, human and computer do virtually even, or either of them is slightly better than others. We can remind of the chess game between the computer and human. The computer chess player can sufficiently clear Turing test in terms of its skill and ability for the game. But, one thing of the computer chess player very different from human player is its boldness. This bold style of playing is applied to any computer game opponents. They are quick and fast to make decision. One thing we should keep mind is that speed and task-ability is not necessarily correlated in human cognition. Better chess player possibly can play chess, taking more time for each turn. On the other hand, more reckless player may loose the game more often with more mistake. So, the question could arise as why human tend to be more cautious about their cognitive task and its activity. My conclusion is 'the uncertainty of the future' and 'the regret of the past'. I think these are main concepts to explain 'time- span' which human's cognitive-traits cover and which make difference from computer whose cognition only cover the very narrow moment. Consequently, it is something which make our cognition actually 'conscious'. Simply, our momentary cognition is not momentary to the object which is momentarily related to the cognition, but cover more wider 'time-span' especially the time after every cognitive task. Human's conscious cognition is facilitated by these two, mentioned above, which are 'the uncertainty of the future' and 'the regret of the past.' For example, we can be often involved in unconscious thinking and activities in daily life. We can walk unconsciously, because we can walk, thinking completely other thing than how to walk. Then we can question when you become conscious about walking. If street is rough and uneven, we see our step and control our walking consciously. This happen because we are uncertain of future result, which our activity will cause, like falling down in this case, moment by moment and this negative uncertainty of our activity make our cognition conscious, namely very momentary cognitive task is already concern about the future-result of this cognitive task. 'the regret of the past' is important, because this actually make our cognition task tend to be forecasting more about the future under uncertainty, because if we never regret the result we have caused, we certainly become very bold for doing everything without (or with??) thinking anything seriously, virtually like the computer opponents of the chess game. Computer players never regret their decision which may actually make them loose the game. Then, if there are people without any regret, is such a person conscious, even if he is involved in cognitive task or activity?? Computer chess player without any regret about its decision is very decisive with every activity without any uncertainty about the future consequence. However, human often deeply regret later on about what they have decided and done. This is why learning is possible but the programming is virtually impossible on human. Also, why human cognition is more semantic but the computer is more syntactic. If human cognition are solely syntactic, we can be programmed and, in extreme case, we can mass- produce human killer machines according to the programme of such a activity. In broader sense, human might be programmed more or less, if education is cultural and it can create variation of people, but human is not programmed as well as computer, because human cognition is inclined to understand the meaning of the world in addition to its syntactic aspect. If we know the meaning, we can not really say about the bad result we have created, just "I don't know" or 'It's okay'. If we know the meaning, we always concerned about the meaning of the result which our decision and activity have created, and the uncertainty about it can be facilitated by the tendency of the regret in the past, which is negative experience. Namely, consciousness is cognitive function for avoidance of any regret. By the way, even when you pursuit good thing and avoid bad thing, if such a pursuits are very biological and sensual, these cognitive activity do not involve consciousness. If you urged to eat by good smell of the food and approach to the food, it is not conscious cognition. But, if you are hungry, but you have to steal the food without the money, or which foods to take, your cognition involve consciousness. As a result of all, conscious cognition is semantic. It is also evaluational cognitive pre-task belong to the momentary cognition about the result which will comes in every moment after and after in our life. The super computer never regret. Your cute dogs may bite the human by mistake but they never regret. If you do not concern of the result of your decision and activity, you are the one you can do anything and everything. It is the human's unconscious-cognition and it seldom tend to be moral. ------------------------------------------------------- Youngjin 'Sung' Kang Cultural Anthropology yjkang@buffalo.edu 716-310-9692 Academic Interrest : * psycholocial, mental and cognitive aspect of culture, * pychoanalysis, culturally specified defence mechanism and self- deception * symbol, language, perception, representation. visual image, films, * memories, reflection, projection. * comparartive analysis of cultures, cross-cultural psychology * Buddhism culture. life cycle, various concepts of life and death * evolutional psychology, social phenotype, sexsual selection, primate sexual behavior * etc..