GENIUS FORUMS

An Ant Must Have a Brain, a consciousness itself

If you were to tell me that an Ant has no brain, I would answer you with, well then how do you suppose an Ant knows instinctively or maybe intuitively too, how to do what an Ant does?

The Ant just seems to be following his own knowledge of getting done what needs to be done.

If an Ant did not have a brain, how could anyone answer what motivates it?

Consciousness must be within the brain or maybe a fraction on the outside of the brain, it would seem that without a brain how could an Ant work, unless it works as a consciousness without a brain.

It seems more apt that consciousness is the brain, rather than it works as a consciousness without a brain.

Consciousness may be the brain itself or perhaps they are separate entities.

Perhaps human consciousness derives it's energy from the brain considering it surrounds the brain's mass.

Considering all living things are conscious, if they be conscious they must feel pain, but how can , plants and trees feel pain, without a brain? And considering an embryo which is a consciousness which feels pain upon being aborted.

http://questforconsciousness.com/

You don't even have to wonder about the ant brain. Crack open an ants head and take a look. I'm sure there are numerous scans and publications on ant brains.

The questions you are asking are similar to "What is it like to be a bat?" and similar thought experiments in neurophilosophy.

consciousness is not necessary for the physical presence of a brain. wordy... just because there's a brain, doesn't mean one is conscious, so they must be two separate entities; one of the physical, the other of the 'spiritual'. an ant must be 'conscious', in terms of our understanding, or else it would always act on instinct, just as we have a consciousness so we don't always reproduce, eat, and drink.

All a matter of perspective.

Given the neural architecture correlating with consciousness in humans. It is highly unlikely that an ant would even be minimally conscious. Its not likely to have a phenomenal self-model which is a requisite for any substantive kind of consciousness.

There doesn't need to be a spirit or separate substance at all. Virtual "Qualia Space" is all that is needed.

Since things are handled by consciousness in relation to other things (what they are not), we can plot qualia space on a multidimensional graph.

These are virtual/logical relationships, not things in themselves.

DAmn.

Animus wrote:http://questforconsciousness.com/

Thanks for the link, I added it to my favorites.

You don't even have to wonder about the ant brain. Crack open an ants head and take a look. I'm sure there are numerous scans and publications on ant brains.

Absolutely, many publications, however, I chose to put forth the question here, so as to choose the answer I think makes sense, and coming from a good source, I would expect good answers, however logic appeals to me the most.

Have you cracked open an ants head and studied it?

Ants have always appealed to me, my friend says they form

Animus wrote:Given the neural architecture correlating with consciousness in humans. It is highly unlikely that an ant would even be minimally conscious. Its not likely to have a phenomenal self-model which is a requisite for any substantive kind of consciousness.

With no disrespect intended, I cannot readily accept that ants would have no consciousness, that is like saying it is not aware of what it is doing. I suppose you think that a bee has no consciousness either. Instinctual must be conscious, or we'd have insects flying around not knowing what they are doing. That doesn't make sense for the logic balance in life, like the fibonacci sequence.

There doesn't need to be a spirit or separate substance at all. Virtual "Qualia Space" is all that is needed.

I agree if it is for where consciousness resides.

Since things are handled by consciousness in relation to other things (what they are not), we can plot qualia space on a multidimensional graph.

I would like to understand this concept.

These are virtual/logical relationships, not things in themselves.

armies, the black ones will overpower the red ones by taking their heads off.

The questions you are asking are similar to "What is it like to be a bat?" and similar thought experiments in neurophilosophy.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be in that persons head right now. I observe them and contemplate their motives.

mensa-maniac wrote: I would like to understand this concept.

http://books.google.ca/books?id=J9D4uhc ... q=&f=false

You'll want to look at page 46, around there, on the book preview, assuming it gives you the same pages. Unfortunately, you probably won't see many of the illustrations associated with the subject and you don't get the neat-o stereoscopic glasses that come with the book ;)