Word: consciousnesses
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...while it has moved beyond the consensus-building architecture of these past decades, Harvard is very conscious of the reaction of its neighbors. The University's decisions in commissioning the new project at 90 Mt. Auburn St. show this greater consciousness of community opinion...
...problem, from a telegenicity standpoint, was that while Gore eliminated the negatives, he didn't have much to offer to replace them. (Oh, he had issues and such, but come on - we're talking TV here.) Gore was a prisoner of the camera, appearing nervous and self conscious of his body language, his wording, his breathing. He was yanked back by an invisible harness whenever he came close to sneering, to uttering a personal anecdote that would be leapt on by some network-news Truth Squad. When he did attack Bush on a point of fact, the effort to reign...
...photograph women a lot, the female form-I've always had this love-hate relationship with the female figure. A lot of it is because I think most women my age-" She hesitates for a moment before continuing. "I'm so self-conscious about my own body, and I have a lot of issues stemming from that. I think that my subjects in photography are a way of wrestling my own demons. Oh God, that sounds so pretentious," she adds, laughing...
...know that your roommates are conscious? No, not at 4 a.m. after copious libations have reduced them to senseless Neanderthals, but how do you know they are conscious, sentient beings to begin with? You might reason as follows: You are conscious (one can be fairly certain of that, most days) and when you interact with your roommates they behave as if their brains possessed the same characteristics that you attribute to your consciousness. Therefore, you attribute the characteristic of "conscious" to these other entities, your roommates. But this inherently subjective definition of consciousness opens the door wide for beings...
...mathematician Alan Turing proposed a test to determine when computers had achieved this consciousness. Turing's test goes as follows: Imagine you are talking with an unknown entity on, say, instant messenger. If after an unlimited period of time you cannot tell if the entity you are communicating with is a computer or a flesh-and-blood human, then we must treat this computer as conscious. Turing's point was in many ways an epistemological **2) or empirical?** one: We can only define consciousness by the behavior we observe in other entities. So, basically, because you believe your roommates...