Re: Peterson's Death Sentence

From: John Fields (jfields_at_austininstruments.com)
Date: 01/30/05 

Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 10:59:43 -0600

On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 20:20:47 +0000, John Woodgate
<jmw@jmwa.demon.contraspam.yuk> wrote:

>I read in sci.electronics.design that John Fields <jfields@austininstrum
>ents.com> wrote (in <fmonv0pbfeq2oq51b9btf9nqf5f8oprg71@4ax.com>) about
>'Peterson's Death Sentence', on Sat, 29 Jan 2005:
>
>>Frayed knot. Color is caused by an electron's dropping from one
>>_discrete_ energy level to another, thus generating a photon which
>>carries off that quantum of energy and vibrates at a particular
>>wavelength.
>
>For a particular electron, yes, but there are rather a lot of electrons.
>Even in one piece of material, the influence of the electric fields from
>other atoms causes 'line-splitting' so that electrons making nominally
>the same transition in fact have slightly different energies.
>
>Consider the famous yellow line in the spectrum of sodium. If all the
>transitions were of exactly the same energy, the line would be
>infinitely narrow in the spectrum space and we would not see it. 

---
Yes, but extending that to the argument of when human consciousness
occurs, if consciousness occurs, when traversing the spectrum, at the
yellow line, then the 'when window' will be anywhere within the jitter
region of the line, somewhat akin to suddenly waking up, somewhere,
while crossing Consciousness Street.
---   
>Then in another piece of material, the electrons can have transition
>energies as close as you like to those in the first piece, so the
>overall result is that spectral colours form a continuous spectrum.
---
OK, but I don't see how that applies to determining the onset of
consciousness for different species.  If a certain level of
development is required before consciousness can occur, then ISTM that
if we use the spectral analogy none of the transition energies below a
certain level will result in the onset of consciousness and, if such
is the case, then the onset of consciousness can be quantified.  If we
use the voltage comparator analogy, we could set the reference input
to a particular DC voltage plus noise, and then when the input voltage
rose to the voltage of the reference, it would trigger the output and
hysteresis would keep the output active until the power supply (life)
failed.         
-- 
John Fields

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Petersons Death Sentence
    ... >For a particular electron, yes, but there are rather a lot of electrons. ... >infinitely narrow in the spectrum space and we would not see it. ... but extending that to the argument of when human consciousness ... to a particular DC voltage plus noise, and then when the input voltage ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: Cosmic acceleration rediscovered
    ... the spectrum mimics the blackbody shape. ... The electrons themselves are ... >>depending on the source temperature, ...
    (sci.astro)
  • Re: Petersons Death Sentence
    ... > Because without that life you would have nothing. ... >> consciousness. ... See respecting electrons above. ... >> Dont be daft. ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: Petersons Death Sentence
    ... > Because without that life you would have nothing. ... >> consciousness. ... See respecting electrons above. ... >> Dont be daft. ...
    (comp.os.linux.networking)
  • Re: Emergence denial: the consequences
    ... consciousness as a fundamental property. ... It goes on to consider the atoms in yonder rock. ... So, John, you have a choice: it's either emergence or conscious ... computer is *doing* you need to also look at the electrons flowing through ...
    (talk.origins)
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