On 8/4/2013 7:56 PM, James Propp wrote:
Without disputing Dan Asimov's assertion that consciousness cannot be an illusion (by which he means, you can't be mistaken in thinking yourself to be conscious), there is a tenable position that illusion is at the core of what we call consciousness. This position becomes even more plausible if we replace "illusion" by "limitations of perception and knowledge". E.g., our limited understanding of ourselves could be at the core of our illusion of having free will (understood as the belief that two incompatible actions A and B that we can imagine ourselves taking are both actions of which we are capable).
Sure. Daniel Dennett makes that point when challenged to explain how a computer could have free will. He says it's very simple, first you program the computer to make intelligent decisions. And then you program it so that when it's asked how it arrived at a decision it says, "I have no idea. It's just what I wanted to do." Brent