Re: PhD studies & Recent diagnosis...
"H. Nikolaus Schaller" <[email protected]> Fri, 29 May 2026 08:44:41 +0200
| Newsgroups | gmane.comp.lib.gnustep.general |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
--Apple-Mail=_58745240-4D7B-40B6-9C2A-4B63840E3427 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 > Am 29.05.2026 um 06:45 schrieb Gregory Casamento = <[email protected]>: >=20 > I haven=E2=80=99t settled on a subject for my dissertation yet. One I = am considering is the nature of consciousness. The idea is that = consciousness could be an emergent property in complex systems. Having done my PhD in the field of AI in the 90ies, I remember this = topic. It was always part of discussions. It is searching for the holy = grail and more a philosophical topic than computer science :) My personal view on consciousness is that the key is to be able to = remember something and compare. Subconscious experiences are suddenly = surfacing and from that moment on you can remember them. And if you = loose consciousness you don't remember. So IMHO consciousness and the = ability to remember is tightly connected. In technological terms: a Flip-Flop has the potential of 1 bit of = consciousness. An AND gate hasn't. But as said it is the holy grail and almost everyone like Leibnitz, = Turing, Wiener, Dreyfus, Weizenbaum, Minsky, Popper and many more (e.g. = Susan Blackmore) have reasoned about that but there is no conclusive = answer. So if you ask 10 people what consciousness is you will get 20 answers :) = Adding another one is therefore an interesting topic. But it is far away from GNUstep... Almost the opposite side of the = universe. BR, Nikolaus= --Apple-Mail=_58745240-4D7B-40B6-9C2A-4B63840E3427 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 <html><head><meta http-equiv=3D"content-type" content=3D"text/html; = charset=3Dutf-8"></head><body style=3D"overflow-wrap: break-word; = -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><br = id=3D"lineBreakAtBeginningOfMessage"><div><br><blockquote = type=3D"cite"><div>Am 29.05.2026 um 06:45 schrieb Gregory Casamento = <[email protected]>:</div><br = class=3D"Apple-interchange-newline"><div><meta charset=3D"UTF-8"><div = dir=3D"auto" style=3D"caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; = font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; = font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; = text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; = word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: = none;">I haven=E2=80=99t settled on a subject for my dissertation = yet. One I am considering is the nature of consciousness. = The idea is that consciousness could be an emergent property in complex = systems. </div></div></blockquote><div><br></div></div>Having done my = PhD in the field of AI in the 90ies, I remember this topic. It was = always part of discussions. It is searching for the holy grail and more = a philosophical topic than computer science :)<div><br></div><div>My = personal view on consciousness is that the key is to be able to remember = something and compare. Subconscious experiences are suddenly surfacing = and from that moment on you can remember them. And if you loose = consciousness you don't remember. So IMHO consciousness and the ability = to remember is tightly connected.</div><div><br></div><div>In = technological terms: a Flip-Flop has the potential of 1 bit of = consciousness. An AND gate hasn't.</div><div><br></div><div>But as said = it is the holy grail and almost everyone like Leibnitz, Turing, Wiener, = Dreyfus, Weizenbaum, Minsky, Popper and many more (e.g. Susan Blackmore) = have reasoned about that but there is no conclusive = answer.</div><div><br></div><div>So if you ask 10 people what = consciousness is you will get 20 answers :) Adding another one is = therefore an interesting topic.</div><div><br></div><div>But it is far = away from GNUstep... Almost the opposite side of the = universe.</div><div><br></div><div>BR,</div><div>Nikolaus</div></body></ht= ml>= --Apple-Mail=_58745240-4D7B-40B6-9C2A-4B63840E3427--