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Originally Posted by noahfor
Any language about this kind of thing is going to be pretty vague. What I was saying is that the system would result in a consciousness. Whether you call the system conscious or not doesn't really matter. Is my brain conscious or I'm I a consciousness created by my brain.
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Certainly - it is a minor linguistic quibble. But an important one, as the image of a system 'becoming' conscious leads to an increased possibility of a conceptual mistake. It conjures up an image of consciousness suddenly 'descending' on the ready made system, adding an 'extra' component.
Furthering this thread's analogy of a computer system - Suppose we take a simpler example and get a few dozen people, and organise them analogously to a simple adder circuit. Once the structure is in place, it makes more sense to say that the structure
is an adder, rather than it
becomes an adder, as the idea of a "becoming" conjures up the idea of an 'event' 'happening' which is not accurate.
Like I said; minor terminological quibble.
