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beefletlast Monday at 10:27 PM2 repliesview on HN

consciousness is the feeling of self awareness. I suppose you could prove it as much as any other feeling, by observing the way that people behave


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selcukalast Monday at 11:02 PM

> I suppose you could prove it as much as any other feeling, by observing the way that people behave

Look up the term "philosophical zombie".

In a nutshell, you can simulate a conscious being using a non-conscious (zombie) being. It is possible to simulate it so well that an outside observer can't tell the difference. If this is true, then the corollary is that you can't really know if other people are conscious. You can only tell that you are.

For all intents and purposes I might be the only one who has consciousness in the universe, and I can't prove otherwise.

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inglor_czlast Monday at 10:58 PM

A robot can certainly be programmed to behave in a self-aware way, but making a conclusion about its actual self-awareness would be unfounded.

In general, behaviorism wasn't a very productive theory in humans and animals either.

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