The Robot Co-op

Today we picked up pork sandwiches and corn on the cob from Paseo then headed down to the water to eat. We discussed the merits of canoes versus kayaks, and I maintain that a canoe is superior.

On the way to and from lunch we armchair navigated through the twisty maze of streets just East of the North end of the University Bridge.

Oh, I also let an eleven month old pug chew on my hand while attempting to photograph him. You’d get one of these super-cute pictures, but I left my camera’s USB cable at home after uploading pictures from the injury-free rollover in my neighborhood last night.

Lunch today was paid by Bob
Whom Fortuna of late seems oft to rob.

Topics of war went ‘round our table
To make a clear point, none were able

(Except maybe Todd, by reading The Stranger—
Silence may be the best shelter from danger).

Moral relativism means wishy-washy.
At least that’s what I got from Joshy.

When asked whose argument seemed to lose
It seemed quite easy for them to choose.

I may not have a very convincing way
But at least I didn’t have to pay… today.

Talk today turned to the rather astonishing fact that humans (or animated meat, as we were referring to them) seem to have consciousness. How is that possible, and if possible (and we all agreed it does seem possible), why couldn’t other meat (or, because we are all computer dorks, machines) be animated with consciousness.

The first clue that nobody really knows anything about this topic is that there isn’t even a settled spelling of the subject. We have the “conscious” mind and we have our “conscience” and both refer to the same thing, right? Or do they? In practice, the former is used to describe our self aware mental state, the latter, the virtual organ we credit with moral judgement. But these are the same right? Etymologically, we are looking at words with the same roots, and interestingly, they talk about common knowledge – con scientia – that is “knowing with”.

Explaining how consciousness could exist seems simple until you try. Is consciousness a fundamental aspect of reality – some basic element of life – or does the existence of consciousness depend on other non-conscious elements be they physical, biological, computational, or neural. If you go with the latter – where does the spark come from that turns the ingredients “on” and why couldn’t we reproduce that process to animate some other collection of parts. If you go with the former, prepare to get called a hippy by your co-workers.

Anyway, Todd helped Bob break his losing streak yesterday, and paid for our Thai food. Bob managed to break our blogging streak by going passive aggressive and refusing to pick anyone to write the last blog post – let’s hope we don’t have any more of that. Such emotional robots!

My morning goal adoption of understand my emotions lead to a discussion of the concept of “self”. Which is how the rambling entry title, “so many spices on the tofu that you can no longer find the tofu” came to be. That was blurted out when I agreed with Josh that the idea of a totally independent self is a mostly flawed western concept. Sure, there’s a self (we’re all born separate bits of tofu) but by the time the competing spices of family, geography, language, culture and countless other influences are layered on, it’s impossible to separate out the self. Tofu may taste like tofu in general, but it also takes on the flavors of it’s surroundings. I am Daniel tofu hot dog.

If the self is tofu then perhaps emotions are condiments. Relish them. And don’t repress your emotions or it’ll eventually ketchup with you. Just soy you know, I’m part German. When I’m grumpy people call me a saurkraut. You’re probably thinking, “Daniel mustard lost his mind”. Maybe. Mayo-be not!