Re: [asa] Quantum quackery

My greyhound Lefty has a slightly different technique he uses to render cats unconscious. It doesn't work very well. He often has that problem you mentioned. To get him to use the same technique on humans, the human would have to be an intruder. Otherwise he would just try to get a treat. I'm pretty sure Lefty is conscious, at least sometimes. Of course he sleeps 19 hours/day.

But we all seem to agree that at least there is a difference between consciousness and unconsciousness. In other words the observer effect does not imply that all matter is conscious.

Brent

---- Michael Roberts <michael.andrea.r@ukonline.co.uk> wrote:

=============
I think we do need to know whether cats are conscious beings and thus need
to carry out some experiments to see whether they are;

1. We can compare their behaviour to plants - non-conscious beings and
humans - conscious beings, and see whether they have any similarity to
either. We could also include worms, clams (sorry David), snails, fish,
frogs, snakes birds, hedgehogs, skunks prairie dogs, dogs, colobus monkeys
and Chimps as well to see if there is a gradation of consciousness.

2. We need to see if we can make these cats unconscious, and I suggest that,
as with humans, a fairly serious but not lethal head injury would induce
unconsciousness into a supposedly conscious animal. Thus the main apparatus
would be a hammer. We could do the tests on both cats and humans, by hitting
them hard on the head. If we kill the human or cat then tough luck, but a
good number of humans would be rendered unconscious, and may or may not come
round again. If we find we get similar results when we hit a good number of
cats over the head with a hammer then we can reasonably conclude that cats
are conscious beings.

I hope that this is a suitable experimental method for determining whether
cats or conscious or not and it seems to fulfil Mooorads requirements of
experimental techniques.

Michael

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alexanian, Moorad" <alexanian@uncw.edu>
To: "Merv" <mrb22667@kansas.net>; <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2007 3:38 PM
Subject: RE: [asa] Quantum quackery

>I cannot even conceive quantum entanglement of a conscious being with
> purely physical entities. Whether cats are conscious beings or not, is a
> separate issue.
>
> Moorad
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Merv [mailto:mrb22667@kansas.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 9:05 PM
> To: Alexanian, Moorad; asa@calvin.edu
> Subject: Re: [asa] Quantum quackery
>
> Conscious beings know they are conscious. But can unconscious beings
> know they are unconscious? It seems knowledge only allows for one side
>
> of this by definition.
>
> Do any scientists seriously believe the cat is in a suspended state
> until an observer looks? Or was Schroedinger just having fun while
> trying to help others understand wave collapse?
>
> --Merv
>
>
> Alexanian, Moorad wrote:
>> We know if we are alive or dead. If the cat is equally conscious,
> wouldn't the cat know if it is alive or dead also?
>>
>>
>> Moorad
>>
>
>
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Received on Thu Sep 20 16:45:18 2007