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by f38zf5vdt 1414 days ago
> Made me consider the question of whether consciousness exists at all or if it is just some hack by evolution to allow introspection.

Can't it be both? What's the difference? Evolution just responds to the environment, so a method of complex interaction with the environment like "consciousness" or "ever-polling situational awareness" seems like par for the course.
1 comments
croes 1414 days ago
Evolution is the result of the environment not a response.

Giraffes didn't get a long neck because the food was out of reach, giraffes have a lock neck because the one without just died.

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f38zf5vdt 1414 days ago
It's a response caused by survival. The environment is the stimuli and the genetics that are not eliminated are cultivated.

If I introduce an antibiotic into a culture of bacteria and they evolve resistance, then they appear to be responding to it on a collective level.

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croes 1414 days ago
"Since bacteria are extremely numerous, random mutation of bacterial DNA generates a wide variety of genetic changes. Through mutation and selection, bacteria can develop defense mechanisms against antibiotics."

https://health.mo.gov/safety/antibioticresistance/generalinf...

Mutation happens all the time because cell replication isn't perfect, some mutation are irrelevant, some deadly, some bring better chance of survival.

It's not a response just the result. Or how does the bacteria know it's an antibiotic and not just water? It doesn't, water just isn't a evolutionary filter, antibiotics are.

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