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Originally Posted by dleviwing What is a good test for consciousness? Try to think back to when you first became aware of your existence – How old were you? Your first memory is the beginning of the emergence of consciousness. Michael’s example is also good. |
This is an interesting idea, although I do not particularly buy it completely. For example, if one suffers memory loss do to a traumatic event, is the existence of consciousness gone during the period in which you blanked out?
I don't think so, I think most would agree that the individual prior to the amnesia had consciousness.
Similarly, I think a small child is in the process of forming a coherent world view during the initial years of development. Thus, early memories are literally "erased" due to the reformation of the cognitive aspect. I fail to see how this is different from amnesia.
Now if you argue some other metric for a young human, we may be able to define for that metric what is, and is not, consciousness for that metric at least. However memory alone is not a compelling representation because of the aforementioned issues.