Self awareness is an internal property which I presume we all experience during our conscious existence. Our self awareness is not defined by externally observed responses. You do not need to react to be aware of your existence.
Smell is what we perceive internally when our sensory data indicates the presence of certain molecules in what we breathe.
It is an awareness of reactions in my physical brain which I consciously interpret as a "smell".
Light is the label given to what is perceived by another reaction in our physical brain caused by the detection of certain wavelengths of radiation which emanate from physical material reactions.These "properties" of material are just human labels given to certain aspects of perceived brain activity derived from material reactions.Information only exists as information in human perception.
Any information in a computer or produced by a computer only exists in raw binary form until it is consciously perceived by a human.
Ah, your usual tangle of misconceptions. Just to clear a few up :
Light is the label given to what is perceived by another reaction in our physical brain caused by the detection of certain wavelengths of radiation which emanate from physical material reactions.
No, it isn't.
Light is the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, a phenomenon of the natural world that exists independently of perception.
"Light" is the label given to that portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the English language. The
detection of light by retinal structures is called "photoreception" and the interpretation of information encoded in the light in a brain is called "visual perception", and no, it is not just human brains that do this, it is an ancient component of brain function predating the evolution of humans by hundreds of millions of years.
Smell is what we perceive internally when our sensory data indicates the presence of certain molecules in what we breathe.
It is an awareness of reactions in my physical brain which I consciously interpret as a "smell".Multiple issues with that too. Outrider's point was one of emergence, atoms don't smell yet complex compounds can be smelly. Likewise the yellowness of a lemon does not derive from its having yellow atoms. If you don't understand the principle of emergence you will not get far. Smells existed long before humans evolved a
sense of smell and humans anyway have a sense of smell because we have mammalian brains and mammalian brains (as well as reptilian brains) evolved olfactory perception. Take a look at dog walkers, you will see that the human walks upright with his head in air, the dog by contrast proceeds with its nose glued to the ground, the scents on the ground provide a rich source of fascination for dogs in a way we can scarcely understand. Consciousness in a dog prioritises olfactory perception over visual perception and this process is something that is built deep into subliminal brain function, neither man nor dog has any control over this.
Self awareness is an internal property which I presume we all experience during our conscious existence. Our self awareness is not defined by externally observed responses.
As with visual perception or auditory perception, self awareness is an aspect of internal conscious experience, and again, it is not something that is exclusive to humans. A strong sense of self characterises humans but it exists in some degree in all vertebrates. Any creature that was unable to understand when it ended and the rest of the cosmos started would not last long. At base, all self-awareness begins with proprioception, this is why all organisms that move have a sophisticated nervous system continually collecting sensory tactile information from all parts of the body, all of which is processed in the brain, the emergent outcome of which forms the basis of the sense of self and this is true whether you are a bat, a badger or a banker.
