re: #816 Prononymous, rogue demon hunter

Your other questions are beating up strawmen.

I’m sorry you feel that way, but I think that the way you’re talking about processes evolving AND the brain evolving is a mistake. The processes are a phenomenon of the brain.

I don’t agree that these cognitive functions are independent of each other. IMO, they are emergent features of a brain. But it is a minor point and a diversion.

They are obviously independent of each other, because they did not all arise simultaneously, and we have human beings who lack specific cognitive functions. Though now that your’e saying they’re emergent— depending on what you mean by ‘emergent’— it sounds like you’re agreeing that they’re qualitatively different, and that it is not, as you claimed, a matter of magnitude.

I guess what I don’t understand is the conclusion you are attempting to draw from “combinatorics matters”. I agree. So what? Are you trying to say that kindness, or whatever, is an emergent feature of all human cognitive functions together and wouldn’t be possible without all of them?

Yep. That’s what I’ve very clearly said. The sum total of things we’ve got going on in our brain makes our consciousness qualitatively different even from our very close cousins.