More Consciousness?

I believe consciousness is not a disparate, identifiable thing that sits in a corner of the brain, but rather is an emergent property that arises spontaneously and automatically as a neural net becomes increasinsgly more complex.

It seems learned opinion today tends toward the view that every living animal has some kind of consciousness, even the most primitive ones, differing only in the level or "amount" of consciousness, which in turn depends on the level of complexity of its brain or neural organization -- which is why we humans count ourselves, with our large and complex brains, as the "most-minded" species, ceding second place to other big-brained species like chimpanzees, dolphins and killer whales (intelligent, but still safely incapable of building a civilization and rivaling or threatening us).

Which then brings up an interesting question: if, in the future, a species is encountered (perhaps extraterrestrial) whose neural organization/cerebral complexity is much greater than ours, would that mean that they are "more conscious", "have more mind" than we do? What would that even mean? I can sort of imagine being less conscious, or "having less mind" than a regular human being, but what would having more consciousness, "more mind" than humans do, be like? Is that even imaginable?

And since we take it for granted that we humans, the possessors of unquestionably the best mind known so far, can own and exploit other creatures with less mind, would that hypothetical species with superior, "bigger" mind, be entitled to own and exploit us in the same way?

Cods

Crammed in like... sardines^

I Found A Glove

Eleven stories down.

How in the world did a glove land on top of an awning?  And not at some random angle, either.  It looks as if it was deliberately laid down.  It's been there for weeks - now every time I go out I check to see if it's still there.  Wonder if it will survive the monsoon rains, which will arrive in a month or so.

Seen At Chogyesa Temple

"The faces we wear".  Or how about "The good and evil in each of us".

I acknowledge I am guilty of committing many acts of evil in the past.  When I think back to those times I can't believe I was so foolhardy and uncaring back then.

Or maybe it's just that I'm too old and tired to act on the evil impulses any more.

Just Came Up With A New Aphorism

To use against the neo-segregationists who would have you believe race is the most important thing about a person:

"We may eat different, but we all $h!t the same".

EDIT:  I am reminded of an old documentary I once watched, that referenced the first contact of a New Guinean(I think?) tribe.  An old native man was talking about the time when he saw white people for the very first time and was fascinated.  He recalled watching the white party from a place of hiding, and when one of the group left to go off into the bush, he guessed what the man was up to, and followed him stealthily.  The white man went to do his business in a suitably isolated spot, none the wiser that he was being watched, and went back to rejoin his party.  The old native then recalled going to examine what the white man had left behind, and he said something to the effect of how he'd been impressed by the fact that the white man's $h!t looked the same as his own, not white as he had half-expected.

Errant Sparrow

Looking rather overwhelmed.

Related posts:  Errant Teddy, Errant Bunny

Down Below

Not quite Eloi and Morlock, but hey, give it a million or so years...

Polite Giant, And About That UFO Rescue

On one level, giants are symbolic embodiments of the unstoppable, inescapable disasters nature sends man's way.  Storms, torrential rains, avalanches, these are all nature's giants.  But giants also serve as literal stand-ins for human evil, writ large.  That latter clan of giants includes Polyphemos the Cyclops, who devoured Odysseus' men.  The "Fee Fi Fo Fum" giant Jack encountered at the top of the beanstalk also wanted to eat him.  And don't forget the savage race of giants in the Harry Potter series.

The big guys all seem so unpleasant.  But are they?  Seems to me, they're not necessarily more cruel to us than we are to the creatures that we exploit.  If we were conquered by a vastly more advanced race of aliens ("giants") who like to eat exotic meat, we wouldn't really be much more than livestock to them.  In fact, there is a movie starring Scarlett Johansson dealing with that very theme ("Under The Skin", based on a novel by the same title by Michael Faber).  And there's the savage aliens consuming human fluids in "War of the Worlds" (2005).  They weren't more civilized than humans, they just had fancier weapons; but even so they treated humans as "just food" (and fertilizer!).

Since giants are creations of ordinary little humans, this tendency to equate giants with evil does not show us in a positive light.  It means people believe being powerful and free of the constraints imposed by rules made by others, not having to answer to anyone, would naturally tend to bring out the baser impulses in men's hearts, even unconsciously (some of Spiderman's adversaries, such as Doctor Octopus, Electro and Green Goblin come to mind).

But if there were godlike galaxy-girding aliens with inconceivable powers and glories, forget about caring about us, would they even notice us?  Forget "breeding" (ahahaha) with humans, like the UFO conspiracy nuts are always going on about -- why would they even bother?  Here's a hint:  do we notice the ants that we walk over every day, and wish we could breed with them?  Or in a darker, but more immediate vein:  if five year-olds were giants, would they trample little adults underfoot when angry?  Imagine a hundred-foot tall kid throwing a tantrum in a crowd...

[The Heaven's Gate tragedy happened because its cult members really believed space aliens with superior powers specifically cared about them. Wow.  And then there's that certain other religious cult out there that does the converse:  it teaches its adherents that, hey, just by joining the cult and paying respect several times a day in a very outwardly visible "I'm devout and you are not, which makes me superior, like a human is superior to a pig" kind of way, they become metaphorical giants among mankind -- not gonna name names though]

But not this giant.  He seems to be apologizing for all the harm done by his fellows.