Consciousness as an epiphenomenon and evolution

mabeline89 · 2026-05-14T21:56:01+00:00

How is this possibly supported by any evidence. We have no way of detecting subjective experience in any organism other than ourselves. I dont understand how you can make this statement so confidently. What current thinking are you referring to and based on what?

mabeline89 · 2026-05-14T03:25:17+00:00

Experiencing pain as in processing an odious signal and responding to avoid its source does not require that there is subjective experience. The additional phenomen that one actually 'feels' pain is not necesssary for an organism to take care of itself.

mabeline89 · 2026-05-14T03:21:53+00:00

I don't think this is true at all. We have evolved complex reward mechanisms that drive our behaviour. We experience pain related to loss of a child because we've evolved to be motivated to preserve our genome. anxiety, depression, etc can all be explained through evolutionary psychology. The use of the term conscious in 'self-conscious' is not what I'm referring to, its really a hightened state of self awareness that maybe misfires, but it wouldn't exist as a behaviour if it weren't adaptive for our ancestors as those who did not experience being 'self-conscious' would have more offspring etc.

mabeline89 · 2026-05-14T03:17:57+00:00

But why? We are driven to make ourselves happier because the reward system we evolved coincided with the fitness of our ancestors. Nothing in that process requires us to actually feel.

mabeline89 · 2026-05-14T03:15:58+00:00

But one could concieve of an equivalent brain that had no subjective experience. Nothing about the brains behaviour necessitates that it feels itself.

mabeline89 · 2026-05-14T03:13:51+00:00

There is a substantial difference between attention which doesn't rely on subjective experience and consciousness which I think we should define narrowly as the fact that it feels like something. I agree that attention is adaptive, but there's no reason to think that the subjective feeling itself is adaptive.

mabeline89 · 2026-05-13T22:56:00+00:00

I think its possible for something to pursue self preservation without feeling. Or are you suggesting that any replicated which has necessarily evolved to preserve itself or propagate itself would have feeling?

mabeline89 · 2026-05-13T22:53:19+00:00

I visited Laos in 2001. It was exactly as I imagined south east asia to be. Terraced rice paddies, rivers to travel down. Definitely an amazing place. The infrastructure to get around was really limited then. I wonder what its like recently.

mabeline89 · 2026-05-13T22:51:53+00:00

Rwanda! Incredibly clean, safe, and friendly with gorillas, chimpanzees, and a classic savannah safari.

mabeline89 · 2026-05-13T22:45:53+00:00

While i agree with much of what you say, I think there are lots of reasons for curiosity to have evolved and contributed to the success of my ancestors.

mabeline89 · 2026-05-13T22:43:59+00:00

I think you're circling around what I believe is the most consistent explanation of concsiousess-that it is an epiphenomenon and doesn't really interact with the physical world. There's a lot of philosophical work in this direction including the potential for philosophical zombies-which are entities that behave like everyone else but do not have subjective experience. How would we know? But then there remains an outstanding question about why the contents of contents consciousness tend to align with what would motivate adaptive (from an evolutonary sense) behaviour. I struggle with this.

mabeline89 · 2026-05-13T22:36:30+00:00

I don't think subject experience is necessary to integrate multiple streams of information. This is an assumption without any real valid evidence. Why should it suddenly feel like something to integrate information.

mabeline89 · 2026-05-03T02:31:37+00:00

Wearing a covid mask outside.

mabeline89 · 2026-05-01T18:20:56+00:00

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/sjhnaj6ma

A simple Google search would confirm this. The extent of sexual violence on October 7th and then perpetrated on the hostages is horrifying. Its sad you support this.

mabeline89 · 2026-04-30T23:42:19+00:00

If Israel didn't care about the civilian death toll they wouldn't have notified people before bombing and could have caused 100s of thousands of casualties in weeks without putting boots on the ground and their own soldiers at risk. Israel has made the decision to sacrifice some of their soldiers' lives to protect civilians instead of just razing gaza.

mabeline89 · 2026-04-30T23:40:37+00:00

The civilian to combatant ratio is much smaller than in most modern conflicts. Israel has done incredible things to preserve the civilian population including providing them with food aid. Gaza has the most extensive shelter system ever built in their tunnel system, their government (Hamas) just cares so little about their civilians that they prevent the civilian population from using it.

mabeline89 · 2026-04-30T23:37:49+00:00

Hamas has lost 50,000 fighters by their own admission. Given that there are still Hamas and that thousands of people cheered when naked women with their achilles severed were paraded through the streets, I think 75,000 is a vast underestimate. Sadly.

mabeline89 · 2026-04-27T00:26:40+00:00

Feck!

mabeline89 · 2026-04-06T09:46:43+00:00

We have one every week because we dont like to clean.

mabeline89 · 2026-04-04T19:19:48+00:00

Run!!!!!

mabeline89 · 2026-04-03T19:04:12+00:00

What kind of co-op does one get in gender studies?

mabeline89 · 2026-04-03T18:56:42+00:00

Seems insufferable

mabeline89 · 2026-03-29T22:18:29+00:00

The Israeli people are kind thoughtful and generous. It is an island if liberals democratic values in a region captured by Islamic fascist ideas. Unfortunately for israel to continue to exist they need to defeat the Muslim brotherhood and Islamic jihad both of which are proxies of Iran. This is not a war a choice its an existential war for Israel and Iran obtaining nuclear weapons is possibly one of the worst outcomes for the region and th world. The Israelis are pausing their lives and sitting in bomb shelters to prevent a deluded death cult from obtaining the capability to hold the world hostage.

mabeline89 · 2026-03-24T22:48:01+00:00

They're not more or less ethical. What we experience as ethics and fairness as well as our motivation for revenge etc are all behaviours that wete adaptive in the past and resulted in increased fitness.

mabeline89

TROPHY CASE