Hacker News Reader

Comment by squibbles | Hacker News Reader

"The juvenile sea squirt wanders through the sea searching for a suitable rock or hunk of coral to cling to and make its home for life. For this task, it has a rudimentary nervous system. When it finds its spot and takes root, it doesn't need its brain anymore, so it eats it! (It's rather like getting tenure.)" [0]

[0] Consciousness Explained, Daniel Dennett. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Consciousness_Explained...

View on HN

Do you recommend that book?

If you are interested in consciousness, then yes, Consciousness Explained is a worthwhile read. If your interest lies with sea squirts, then not so much.

While I do not necessarily agree with Dennett's position in whole, I believe his arguments make a valuable contribution to the subject of consciousness -- even moreso in the context of Wigner's thought experiment and the recent empirical results.

Would you mind sharing a pointer to the recent empirical results?

Science magazine [0] and Ars Technica [1] published readable overviews. The paper on the experiment regarding Wigner's friend paradox ("A strong no-go theorem on the Wigner’s friend paradox") was published in Nature Physics. [2] [3]

[0] https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/08/quantum-paradox-poin...

[1] https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/08/quantum-reality-is-e...

[2] https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-0990-x

[3] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-020-0990-x

Reply on news.ycombinator.com