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Comment by ASalazarMX | Hacker News Reader

How do we know if the visual cortex isn't conscious? There are conscious parts of our brain that we aren't aware of, just as we are alive, but we can't be aware of how all our cells are also alive.

I think quantifying consciousness is a problem we are absurdly far from solving yet. Most we are able to do is philosophize about it.

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You're doing that "we just don't understand the brain" thing that everyone apparently loves doing, I guess because it makes them sound smart? Asking questions like "How do we know if the visual cortex isn't conscious" is not the same as actually knowing anything about cognitive neuroscience.

> Asking questions like "How do we know if the visual cortex isn't conscious" is not the same as actually knowing anything about cognitive neuroscience.

Can you explain me how neuroscience proves the visual cortex can't be conscious? Why is it so wrong of me to ask that question?

You can invent an arbitrary number of meaningless questions, but it's not the same as actually knowing anything about the subject you're inventing questions about. Nobody has any obligation to prove or disprove any of your questions. You have the obligation to prove your claim (if you were to actually make one).

If I walk into a city council meeting and start yelling "Why haven't you greened the fish sun???" all I'm doing is wasting everyone's time, and yet I can then say "Hey, I'm just asking questions! They won't answer my questions!" as though I'm some kind of victim and the city council is some kind of mysterious evil cabal.

Similarly, the phrase "Do your research" is designed to signal that I'm the smart one, the one in the know, the one who knows what's REALLY going on, even though I know nothing about x, y or z.

We don’t have a definition of consciousness that allows us to tell whether a single electron is conscious or not, so literally anything can be „conscious“.

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