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I am going to talk about consciousness.

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Why consciousness?

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It is curiously a neglected subject

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both in our scientific
and our philosophical culture.

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Why is that curious?

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It's most important aspect of our lives
for a very simple logical reason,

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namely, it is a necessary condition
on anything being important in our lives

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that we are conscious.

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[If] you care about science,
philosophy, music, art, whatever,

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it is no good if you are
a zombie or in a coma, right?

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So consciousness is number one.

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That's the first reason
[that] we are talking about it.

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The second reason is that when people
do get interested in it,

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as I think they should,

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they tend to say
the most appalling things!

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I am not going to attempt
to conceal from you

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some of the most appalling things
that have been said about it;

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and even when they are not saying
appalling things

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[and] they are really trying
to do serious research,

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well, it's been slow,
progress has been slow.

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Let me tell you a little bit
about some of the difficulties.

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When I first got interested
in this, I thought

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it's a straightforward problem in biology

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[so] let's get these brain stabbers
to get busy

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and figure out how it works in the brain.

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I went over to UCSF and talked
to all heavy-duty neurologists there

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and they showed some impatience,

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as scientists often do when you ask them
embarrassing questions,

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and the thing that struck me

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is that a very famous neurobiologist
said exasperated:

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"Look, in my discipline,
it's OK to be interested in consciousness,

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but get tenure first!

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(Laughter)

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I've been working on this for a long time

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and now you might actually get tenure

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by working on consciousness,
and if so, that's a real step forward!

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Why then, is this curious reluctance

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and curious hostility to consciousness?

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I think it's a combination of two features
of our intellectual culture

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that like to think
they are opposing each other

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but in fact they share
a common set of assumptions.

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Consciousness is not a part
of the physical world

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but it's part of the spiritual world,
it belongs to the soul,

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and the soul is not a part
of the physical world.

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That's the tradition of God,
the soul, and immortality.

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There is another tradition
that is opposed to this

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but excepts the worst assumption.

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That tradition thinks
we are heavy-duty scientific materialists,

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consciousness is not a part
of the physical world,

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either it doesn't exist at all
or it is something else,

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a computer program
or some damn fool thing.

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(Laughter)

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But in any case, it's not part of science!

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I used to get in an argument
that really gave me a stomachache.

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Here is how it went:

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"Science is objective,
consciousness is subjective,

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therefore, there cannot be
a science of consciousness."

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I love that argument

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because it has got
a wonderful fallacy of ambiguity

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over the concept of objectivity.

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And I have already used up too much time

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just to clearing my breath,
sort of speak,

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but I want to get to that.

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These twin traditions are paralyzing us,

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and it's very hard to get out
of these twin traditions,

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and I have only one real message
in this lecture,

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and that is consciousness

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is a biological phenomenon,
like photosynthesis,

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digestion, mitosis,
and all that biological phenomena.

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And once you accept that,

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most, though not all,

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of the hard problems about consciousness

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simply evaporate!

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And I will go through some of them.

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I promised you to tell you

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some of the outrageous things
said about consciousness,

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and because of shortage of time,
I will only mention four of the worst.

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One: "Consciousness does not exist.

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It is an illusion, like sunsets."

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Science has shown sunsets
and rainbows are illusions,

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so consciousness is an illusion.

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Two: "Maybe it exists,
but it is really something else,

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it's a computer program
running in the brain."

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Three: "No, the only thing
that exists is really behavior!"

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It's embarrassing
how influential behaviorism was,

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but I will get back to that.

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Four: "Maybe consciousness exists,

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but it can't make
any difference to the world.

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How could spirituality move anything?"

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And whenever somebody
tells me that, I think:

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"You want to see if spirituality
moves something? Watch!"

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I decide consciously to raise my arm
and the damn thing goes up.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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Furthermore, we do not say:
"It's a bit like the weather in Geneva,

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some days it goes up
and some days it doesn't go up."

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No! It goes up

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when I right damn well want it to!

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I will tell you how that is possible.

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Now, I haven't yet given you a definition,

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you can't do this
if you don't give a definition.

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People always say: "Consciousness
is very hard to define."

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I think it is rather easy to define

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if you are not trying to give
a scientific definition.

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We are not ready
for a scientific definition,

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but here is the common sense definition:

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consciousness consists of all those states
of feelings, or sensations, or awareness;

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it begins in the morning
when you wake up from a dream,

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and it goes on all day,
until you fall asleep, or die,

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or otherwise become unconscious.

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Dreams are a form
of consciousness on this definition.

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That's the common sense definition,
that's our target;

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if you are not talking about that,
you are not talking about consciousness.

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But they think:"Well, that's it!

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That's an awful problem!

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How can such thing exist
as part of the real world?"

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And this, if you have ever had
a philosophy course,

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this is known
as the famous "mind-body problem."

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I think that has a simple solution to it
and I am going to give it to you.

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And here it is:

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all of our conscious states,
without exception, are caused

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by lower-level neurobiological processes
in the brain.

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And they are realized in the brain
as higher-level or system features.

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It is about as mysterious
as the liquidity of water, right?

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The liquidity is not an extra juice

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squirted out by the H2O molecules,

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it's a condition that the system is in.

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And just as the jar full of water
can go from liquid to solid,

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depending on the behavior
of the molecules,

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so your brain can go
from a state of being conscious

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to a state of being unconscious,

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depending on the behavior
of the molecules.

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The famous "mind-body problem"
is that simple.

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But now, we get
into some harder questions.

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Let's specify
the exact features of consciousness

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so that we can then answer
those four objections that I made to it.

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Well, the first feature is
it is real and irreducible.

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You can't get rid of it.

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You see, the distinction
between reality and illusion

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is the distinction between how things
consciously seem to us

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and how they really are.

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If consciousness seems like...

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I like the French "arch",
it seems like there's an arch in the sky,

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or it seems like the sun
is setting over the mountains,

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it consciously seems to us

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but that's not really happening.

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But for that distinction,

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between how things consciously seem
and how they really are,

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you can't make that distinction
for the very existence of consciousness.

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Because we are
the very existence of consciousness:

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if it consciously seems to you,
that you are conscious,

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you are conscious!

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(Laughter)

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I mean if a bunch of experts
come to me and say:

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"We are heavy-duty neurobiologists
and we've done a study on you Searle,"

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and we are convinced
you are not conscious.

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You're a very cleverly constructed robot."

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I don't think: " Well, maybe
these guys are right!"

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I don't think that for a moment!

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Because, I mean, Descartes
may have made a lot of mistakes

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but he is right about this:

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you cannot doubt the existence
of your own consciousness.

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That's the first feature of consciousness.

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It is real and irreducible.

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You cannot get rid of it
by showing that it's an illusion,

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in a way that you can
with other standard illusions.

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The second feature is this one

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that has been such a source
of trouble to us.

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And that is all of our conscious states

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have this qualitative character to them;

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there is something
that it feels like to drink beer,

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which is not what feels like
to do your income tax,

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or listen to music.

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And this qualitative field
automatically generates a third feature,

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namely, conscious states
are by definition subjective,

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in the sense that they only exist

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as experienced
by some human or animal subjects,

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some self that experiences them.

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Maybe we will be able
to build a conscious machine,

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[but] since we don't know
how our brains do it,

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we are not in the position, so far,
to build a conscious machine.

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Okay, another feature of consciousness

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is that it comes
in unified conscious fields.

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I don't just have the sight
of people in front of me,

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and the sound of my voice,

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and the weight of my shoes
against the floor,

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but they occur to me as part
of one single great conscious field

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that stretches forward and backward.

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That is the key to understanding
the enormous power of consciousness.

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And we have not been able
to do that in a robot.

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The disappointment of robotics
derives from the fact

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that we don't know
how to make a conscious robot,

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so we don't have a machine
that can do this kind of thing.

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The next feature of consciousness

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after this marvelous,
unified conscious field

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is that it functions causally
in our behavior.

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I gave you a scientific demonstration
by raising my hand,

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but how is that possible?

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How can it be
that this thought in my brain

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can move material objects?

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Well, I will tell you the answer.

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--we don't know the detailed answer,

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but we know the basic part of the answer--

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and that is there are sequences
of neuron firings

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and they terminate
where the acetylcholine is secreted

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at the axon end-plates
of the motor neurons,

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sorry to use
philosophical terminology here.

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(Laughter)

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But when it is secreted

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at the axon end-plates
of the motor neurons,

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a lot of wonderful things
happen in the ion channels

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and the damned arm goes up.

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And think of what I have told you.

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One and the same event,

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my conscious decision to raise my hand

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has a level of description

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where it has all of these touchy-feely,
spiritual qualities,

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--it's a thought in my brain--

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but at the same time,

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it's busy secreting acetylcholine

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and doing all sorts of other things

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as it makes its way from the motor cortex

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down through the nerves fibers
and the arm.

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Now, what that tells us
is that our traditional vocabularies

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for discussing these issues,
are totally obsolete!

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One and the same event,

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has a level of description
where's neurobiological,

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and another level of description
where's mental,

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and that's a single event

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and that's how nature works,

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that's how is possible
for consciousness to function causally.

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Now, with that in mind,

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with going through these various features
of consciousness,

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let's go back and answer
some of those early objections.

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Well, the first one I said,
was consciousness doesn't exist,

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it's an illusion.

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Well, I've already answered that

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I don't think we need to worry about that.

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But the second one,
had an incredible influence

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and may still be around,
and that is

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if consciousness exists,
it's really something else;

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it's really a digital computer program

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running in your brain,

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and that's what we need to do
to create consciousness,

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get the right program.

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Forget about the hardware,
any hardware will do,

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provided is rich enough and stable enough
to carry the program.

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Now, we know that that's wrong.

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I mean, anybody who's thought
about computers at all

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can see that that's wrong.

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Because computation is defined
as symbol manipulation,

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usually thought as 0s and 1s,
but any symbols will do.

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You get an algorithm

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that you can program in a binary code

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and that's the defining trait
of the computer program.

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But we know that's purely syntactical,
that's symbolic,

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we know that actual human consciousness

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has something more than that,
it's got a content,

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in addition to the syntax,
it's got a semantics.

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I made that argument,

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--oh, my god!
I don't want to think about it!--

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more that 30 years ago,

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but there is a deeper argument
implicit in what I've told you.

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And I want to tell you that argument
briefly, and that is:

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consciousness creates an observer
independent reality.

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It creates a reality of money,
property, government,

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marriage, CERN, conferences,

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cocktail parties, and summer vacations.

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And all of those
are creations of consciousness.

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Their existence is observer-relative.

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It's only relative to conscious agents;

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that a piece of paper is a money,

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or a bunch of buildings is a university.

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Now, ask yourselves about computation.

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Is that absolute?

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Like force, and mass,
and gravitational attraction?

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Or is it observer-relative?

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Well, some computations are intrinsic.

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I add two plus two to get four,

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that's going on no matter
what anybody thinks.

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But when I hold out my pocket calculator
and do the calculation,

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the only intrinsic phenomenon

283
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is the electronic circuit
and its behavior.

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That's the only absolute phenomenon.

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All the rest is interpreted by us.

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Computation only exists
relative to consciousness.

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Either a conscious agent
is carrying the computation

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or it has a piece of machinery

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00:13:34,161 --> 00:13:37,040
that admits
of a computational interpretation.

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00:13:37,041 --> 00:13:39,240
That doesn't mean
computation is arbitrary,

291
00:13:39,241 --> 00:13:41,520
I spent a lot of money
on this hardware,

292
00:13:41,521 --> 00:13:43,690
but we have this persistent confusion

293
00:13:43,691 --> 00:13:46,230
between objectivity and subjectivity

294
00:13:46,231 --> 00:13:48,010
as features of reality,

295
00:13:48,011 --> 00:13:50,280
and objectivity and subjectivity

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00:13:50,281 --> 00:13:52,560
as features of claims.

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00:13:52,561 --> 00:13:55,660
And the bottom line
of this part of my talk, is this:

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you can have
a completely objective science,

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00:13:59,661 --> 00:14:02,590
a science where you make
objectively true claims

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00:14:02,591 --> 00:14:05,400
about a domain whose existence
is subjective,

301
00:14:05,401 --> 00:14:08,860
whose existence is in the human brain,

302
00:14:08,861 --> 00:14:12,860
consisting of subjective states
or sensations, or feeling, or awareness.

303
00:14:12,861 --> 00:14:16,860
So the objection, that you can't have
an objective science of consciousness

304
00:14:16,861 --> 00:14:20,860
because it's subjective,
and science is objective,

305
00:14:20,861 --> 00:14:24,320
that's a pun, that's a bad pun
on objectivity and subjectivity.

306
00:14:24,321 --> 00:14:29,380
You can make objective claims
about a domain that is subjective

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00:14:29,381 --> 00:14:30,840
in its mode of existence,

308
00:14:30,841 --> 00:14:34,470
and indeed, that's what neurologists do.

309
00:14:34,471 --> 00:14:37,020
You have patients
that actually suffered pains

310
00:14:37,021 --> 00:14:39,720
and you are trying to get
an objective science of that.

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00:14:39,721 --> 00:14:41,720
I promised to refute all these guys,

312
00:14:41,721 --> 00:14:43,941
but I don't have
an awful lot of time left,

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00:14:43,961 --> 00:14:46,310
but let me refute a couple more of them.

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00:14:46,311 --> 00:14:50,600
I said that behaviorism ought to be
one of the great embarrassments

315
00:14:50,601 --> 00:14:52,130
of our intellectual culture,

316
00:14:52,131 --> 00:14:54,610
because it's refuted the moment
you think about it.

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00:14:54,611 --> 00:14:58,020
Your mental states are identical
with your behavior?

318
00:14:58,021 --> 00:15:00,920
Well, think about the distinction
between feeling a pain,

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00:15:00,921 --> 00:15:02,820
and engaging in pain behavior.

320
00:15:02,821 --> 00:15:04,780
I mean, I won't demonstrate pain behavior

321
00:15:04,781 --> 00:15:07,440
but I can tell you
I am not having any pains right now!

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00:15:07,441 --> 00:15:08,930
So it's an obvious mistake.

323
00:15:08,931 --> 00:15:10,420
Why did they make the mistake?

324
00:15:10,421 --> 00:15:12,111
The mistake was, and you go back

325
00:15:12,121 --> 00:15:15,380
and ready the literature on this,
you can see this over and over,

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00:15:15,381 --> 00:15:17,960
they think [that] if you accept

327
00:15:17,961 --> 00:15:21,390
the irreducible existence
of consciousness,

328
00:15:21,391 --> 00:15:23,010
you're giving up on science,

329
00:15:23,011 --> 00:15:24,940
you're giving up on 300 years

330
00:15:24,941 --> 00:15:27,890
of human progress and human hope
and all the rest of it.

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00:15:27,891 --> 00:15:30,900
And the message
I want to leave you with is

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00:15:30,901 --> 00:15:35,400
consciousness has to become accepted
as a genuine biological phenomenon,

333
00:15:35,401 --> 00:15:38,590
as much subject to scientific analysis

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00:15:38,591 --> 00:15:41,360
as any other phenomena in biology,
or, for that matter,

335
00:15:41,361 --> 00:15:42,690
the rest of science!

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00:15:42,691 --> 00:15:43,870
Thank you very much.

337
00:15:43,871 --> 00:15:45,161
(Applause)