Imagine designing a software that can scan and identify an object, its name, its color. Lets say further, once identified the color, it can even find many other objects of same color, and relate to events that has significance in terms of that color, etc. But given this behavior, would we conclude that program is conscious of that color. Whats missing in it?
We associate emotions with everything, with color - with things of that color, or with events in our experience that relate to that color. Is this experience of emotion or our feeling, the very essence of what we term as consciousness?
As is said, the brain is constant predicting machine. We constantly make predictions about ourselves, others around us and our surrounding. When we find someone who do not acts as we would have predicated, based on what degree it violates our expectation according to our experiences and the context; we may consider it as inebriated, stupefied, absurd or magical.
How is consciousness effected of someone who is inebriated? When someone is highly drunk, he doesn't seems to have control over his actions and in extreme case - later has no recollection of his own actions. This seems to show that alcohol affects first our senses, how we perceive our environment. Later it seems to starts affecting brain's memory centers. Does this means that our experience of senses, automatically creates an false illusion, that we consider as being conscious. And when drunk and with no control over our own senses, we start feeling we are losing our consciousness.
Probably consciousness is nothing but an illusion. Consider the case of patients with phantom limb, they can be said being conscious of an arm that is no more there. Or take an example of patient with scotoma or blind spot (caused due to damage to the primary part of visual cortex called V1, which is an area that has cells laid out in a map of the visual world, and so damage to it creates a blind area). They are conscious that there is no blind spot and they have perception of able to see everything, till they are pointed to things they missed.
We associate emotions with everything, with color - with things of that color, or with events in our experience that relate to that color. Is this experience of emotion or our feeling, the very essence of what we term as consciousness?
As is said, the brain is constant predicting machine. We constantly make predictions about ourselves, others around us and our surrounding. When we find someone who do not acts as we would have predicated, based on what degree it violates our expectation according to our experiences and the context; we may consider it as inebriated, stupefied, absurd or magical.
How is consciousness effected of someone who is inebriated? When someone is highly drunk, he doesn't seems to have control over his actions and in extreme case - later has no recollection of his own actions. This seems to show that alcohol affects first our senses, how we perceive our environment. Later it seems to starts affecting brain's memory centers. Does this means that our experience of senses, automatically creates an false illusion, that we consider as being conscious. And when drunk and with no control over our own senses, we start feeling we are losing our consciousness.
Probably consciousness is nothing but an illusion. Consider the case of patients with phantom limb, they can be said being conscious of an arm that is no more there. Or take an example of patient with scotoma or blind spot (caused due to damage to the primary part of visual cortex called V1, which is an area that has cells laid out in a map of the visual world, and so damage to it creates a blind area). They are conscious that there is no blind spot and they have perception of able to see everything, till they are pointed to things they missed.
