Consciousness and Intelligence

[Beau Geste (imported)]

Something which may have some bearing on this subject, is the observation which someone made recently, that all thought originates, at some level, in the subconscious. The question can be asked, whether, if your thought originates there, intelligent thought processes could be fully contained in the subconscious.

The story of Travis the chimpanzee, who attacked his owner's friend, and then was shot dead by policemen, makes you wonder at what level of consciousness the higher primates carry out their mental processes. Could the attack have simply been the result of some instintive reaction, or was the ape perhaps jealous? Be nice if animals could talk. Or perhaps we wouldn't feel right eating them, if they could communicate intelligently with them.

[A-1 (imported)]

The horror when good monkeys go bad...

....they end up in the back of a Police car. (http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2255830/trunk_monkey/)

...but seriously, wild animals.

If you want to live dangerously, get a pet Pit Bull, treat it right and it will be your faithful companion and protector.

Of course, they may have to be neutered, and go on a child molester list... (http://www.metacafe.com/watch/167108/doggy_style/)

But if you would rather die, then get a pet Grizzly Bear or try to make wild animals pets, name them, etc. (http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/treadwel ... 43462.html).

But seriously, folks, these animals are NOT domesticated. They are wild animals and have not been bred for docile qualities.

...it is NOT Gorillas in the mist. People who know what they are doing, sometimes die (http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/ste ... 51512.html)anyway.

It is a risk you take living with a wild animal...

[chilliwilli (imported)]

So the main difference between human and HAL is that conciousness and intelligence are layered in completely different ways.

When HAL boot up, it can do things that look intelligent before it regain conciousness. Or conciousness like behaviour.

when humans wake up from sleep they first regain conciousness before they could do anything that may look intelligent.

Conciousness for humans is something so essential. It seem to be a nest from where thoughts can emerge. The source of intelligence.

Of my own experience, near death experince I can tell that conciousness was the last thing that left and first thing that returned, I was able to have limited thoughts before my senses returned. It was I, my conciousness which explored surrounding darkness and wondered whats that. It had no memories either, just pure conciousness wihtout connection to external world.

I keep thinking that all mammals have conciousness. While Ants, bees and termites have something like limited collective mind that the Borg from startrek had.

erikboy-

Ekhart Tolle in his book "The Power of Now" writes heavily on this. The subconcious seems to be where creativity and true intelligence are rooted. And the concious as you stated then becomes a "nest" where these ideas come to the surface.

Many artists, musicians, and inventors have acknowledged their greatest creations have come when their minds were free of thoughts.

chilli-