From: ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de   
      
   Richmond  wrote or quoted:   
   >Some theorize that the purpose of consciousness is to allow us to do   
   >psychology, i.e. to have some insight into what it is like to be someone   
   >else.   
      
     A simple AI chatbot can often do a pretty good job at answering   
     psychological questions.   
      
     But the "insight" you mentioned is important in the following   
     way: We can experience pain. So we also see it as immoral to   
     inflict pain on others. However, we don't see it as immoral   
     to hit a wooden table, because we think it can't feel pain.   
      
     And that's consciousness - when we say it's immoral to hit   
     something, we're assuming it has consciousness and can suffer.   
      
     So, it's not the same as being able to process information.   
     An electronic circuit or a digital computer, they can both   
     process information just fine. But we don't think they're   
     actually feeling anything when they do it.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)