Reaction Page (Oct 3)

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Philosophy

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Dec 6, 2023

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Sean Park Prof. Phillip Kellman Psych 85 Oct 3, 2023 Week 1 Reaction Page (Oct. 3) Thoughts, Interesting Findings I found all 3 readings for Oct. 3 to be quite interesting, although the first reading was a lot denser than Dennett’s essays that were a bit lighter and more colloquial. The material for this week reminded me about the readings I had done for Philosophy 7: Philosophy of Mind, a course I had taken at UCLA during my freshman year. Visual Awareness seemed to cover all the major concepts covered throughout the quarter in Phil 7. The topics were just as confusing as I remembered them to be, though going through some of my old notes and essays helped with refreshing and understanding them. The most interesting read for me was Dennett’s essay “Where am I.” The thought experiment written in a narrative style that reads much like a short story or science fiction tale made difficult philosophical questions that he posed (issues of identity, consciousness, and self) more approachable. I also liked how he did not end with a clear conclusion of these issues. I found myself naturally thinking about these issues myself as I read along. Towards the end of the essay, Dennett’s thought experiment took a more extreme theoretical turn in positing the possibility of Dennett’s two brains (the biological one and the programmed one) drifted out of synch creating 2 distinct minds trapped in one body. This reminded me of the show “Severance” on Apple TV, which is a show that delves into the concept of work-life balance in a very literal way: employees undergo a procedure that separates their work memories from their non-work memories, leading to two distinct identities for each individual—one for work and one for personal life. I thought the plot and central topics of the show (identity and consciousness and self) might have been inspired by this thought experiment. Can Machine’s Think was actually an assigned reading that I have done for Philosophy 7. It posed some interesting components, both strengths and weaknesses, of the Turing Test as well as variation of it. I think the topic of AI is especially relevant today and would love to read a more recent essay or article regarding the philosophy behind machine consciousness. Questions, Confusions

Of the qualities that mental experiences have that physical matter does not, I find “intentionality” difficult to understand and how it relates to the directedness of visual experiences. What exactly constitutes an “emergent property”? The reading says “attributes that simply do not arise in ordinary matter unless it reaches a certain level or type of complexity.” This seems broad. What defines complexity and what level are they referring to?

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