Why, by collecting a cabinet from IKEA, you become a super -social

Every Thursday Samizdat “Batenka, you are a transformer” publishes deciphering the best podcasts of the Glagolev FM radio station. Today you will learn what consciousness is, what is it like to be a bat and why the ability to collect furniture from IKEA puts us at the highest level of evolution. About all this in his podcast, the “philosophizing muskat”, dedicated to the interpretation of the thoughts of the best minds of mankind, says Anna Kantianka.

“Hello, Uncle Ondatr,” said Mumiy Troll.

“Do not bother me, I work,” said Andar. “I think,” Ondatr grumbled angrily. - Think!

Today we will talk about what consciousness is. On the wall of the ancient Greek temple of Apollo was the inscription: "Know yourself." And for more than two millennia, people reflect on human nature. What is a person? What distinguishes him from other living creatures? What do we have, what does chimpanzees or elephant do not have?

Genetics will answer that a person as he is, thanks to the unique structure of DNA, which has developed in the process of evolution. Well, the priest will probably say that God gave man a special intelligent soul. And the philosopher, most likely, will utter a long tirade from which you will not understand anything, but catch the word “consciousness” many times. Great discoveries, flights into space, art and even speech - all this is impossible unconscious. So we are what we are, thanks to consciousness? It turns out that the inscription "Know yourself" calls us to study consciousness?

But here is the problem: how to study it? What is it at all - consciousness? How did it arise, does people really have it? And in general: the consciousness is financially or, perhaps, does it manage the soul? So many questions - and it is not clear how to answer them. After all, even we do not have any special device that can study consciousness, as, for example, we can study the heart or there are light ones. And what should we do? How to be? The philosopher would answer you that you need to reflect on this. And what, in general, still remains to do? In any incomprehensible situation, it is best to sit down and think. Sometimes think for a long time. Well, there are one hundred or a thousand years, or maybe an eternity. In general, philosophical questions are eternal, but we cannot ask them, so we will talk about consciousness today.

But we do not cut the sea behind the tsunami and do not put sharks in an underwater prison

Why are the problems related to the study of consciousness in general are so important? And all because conscious creatures understand, that is, they realize what they do and what the consequences will have. Therefore, a person is as a goal, and not as a means, as the old man Kant bequeathed to us. Every reasonable creature is the goal in itself, because it is reasonable and knows how to recognize good and evil. If something does not have reason, it, firstly, can be used as a thing, and secondly, it cannot be judged by the same standards as intelligent creatures. We do not cut the sea behind the tsunami and do not put sharks in an underwater prison. We simply perceive the natural element as inevitable, but we are lulling aggressive animals. With a guilty person, we act differently, depending on what he has done. We will either talk with him and explain that he was wrong, that he should compensate for damage and not to do it anymore, well, or we are isolating it from society. In extreme cases, of course, we can kill him, but can we kill a person for anything - this is a separate and very difficult question. That is, it is clear that it is important for us to understand whether someone is conscious or not, because it depends on this how we will communicate with this creature.

But what is consciousness? What do we mean by consciousness? Firstly, if the creature perceives the world around him and reacts adequately to it, then it is in consciousness. In this sense, my cat Henry Pushel is a completely rational and conscious creature. He sees a spray of water in my hands, he understands that he will now fall under the stream, stops biting me and fleeing. That is, he correctly evaluates the threat and makes the right decision. If you watched the new Twin Pix season, then you may have noticed that Daggie Jones clearly reacted little to the world around him, that is, it was not in himself and in this sense unconscious. In addition, we mean that someone is conscious when he is awake, that is, he is simply conscious here and now, that is, he does not sleep. Again, if the lawyer proves that the suspect was unconscious during the murder, for example, if he is a somnambul, then he will most likely justify him. On this, for example, the plot of the film “Side effect” is built. In addition, we can assume that someone has a conscious experience if his sensations are accompanied by unique processes of processes in the outside world.

I will give examples for clarity. When a specific person - well, say, the sommelier of the victuar - drinks red wine, he, in addition to the taste itself, feels the gamut of a variety of subjective experiences associated with this taste. For example, it seems to the victuar that the wine has a rich, saturated taste of sweet grapes, gives a fruit aroma and has a light taste of wood. If, we put it, I will try this wine (full profan in wineopy), it will seem to me that the wine is sweet and pleasant to taste - that's all. That is, I can’t feel everything that Victoire feels sommelier. In other words, if you can stay in someone’s skin and feel how it is like to be a different person, which means that this person has a conscious experience. Wise sayings have originated from here, like: "Before condemning someone, take his shoes and go his way." Again, all these films about the exchange of bodies tell us just that we can really understand someone only by living in their skin. Well, of course, we can say that we have a conscious creature if it has self -awareness.

If you think about who on our planet has consciousness in a four sense, it turns out that not only a person, but also some animals. It also turns out that some people are completely unconscious. First, consider the wakefulness and an adequate reaction to the world. With this, it seems, everything is clear: when animals do not sleep and do not get sick, they fully realize what is happening around them, and react properly. This means that all living creatures have this kind of consciousness. Next, let's figure out whether the animals have unique experiences of their sensory experience, like people. The American philosopher Thomas Nagel thought about it and came to the conclusion that it would probably be possible to answer the question: “What is it like a bat?”, If our mind miraculously moved to the head of a bat. The almost blind bat is guided by the space with echolocation, it makes sounds and determines the location of objects according to the echo, which is reflected from them and returns to the mouse. It is very difficult for us to imagine how she sees the world. However, according to Thomas Nagel, bats and other animals really experience a unique sensory experience - and it turns out that in this sense they are conscious.

We can read, we fly into space, and we can assemble a closet from IKEA

Well, let's talk about self -awareness. A person, of course, has knowledge of himself, but scientists believe that this knowledge is not innate, but acquired. How did they come to such conclusions? They conducted a test for self -awareness. The child was planted in front of the mirror and made it time to understand what the mirror is, that it reflects what is in front of him. And then the child imperceptibly made a bright mark on his face, smeared, for example, with paint so that it could be seen only in the mirror. If the child reacted to the label - well, for example, he tried to erase it, then the test was considered passed and announced that such a child had self -awareness. So, babies pass this test at about a year and a half, and before that they do not react to the label. Therefore, self -awareness arises in the process of growing up. And in further studies, it became clear that one growing up is not enough, because not all children undergo a mirror test. The so-called mowgli children-wild children, divorced from socialization and brought up by animals-never, at any age, have not passed a mirror test. That is, if the test results can really identify the presence of self -awareness, it turns out that self -awareness can only arise in a socialized person. But is it only a person? Of course, scientists were curious to find out whether the mirror test would pass. And what would you think? Well, what are the guesses? Does anyone else have self-awareness, except for a person? Yes, chimpanzees, orangutanes, gorillas, dolphins, killer whales, elephants, fish, giant sea devils, magpies and even ants passed the mirror test. That is, if the interpretation of the test is adequate to reality, in principle, by indirect, so to speak, evidence, we can attribute real consciousness to all these animals, but people, of course, are very high about ourselves, so we continue to believe that only we have a real consciousness. We can read, we fly into space, and we can assemble a closet from IKEA. Which monkey can do?

In the following issues, we will talk about the problems of human consciousness, including the difficult problem of consciousness, which everyone calls it: "A difficult problem of consciousness." With you was the philosophizing Ondatra Anna Kantianka, for now. And remember: a person is as a goal, and not as a means.

Having ordered such an amazing everyday wisdom, the muskrat retired to the hammock to read a book about the vague of all things.