182. - Notes - it is obvious

182. 8 August 2019

       Early evening. You and Carol had a good lunch at Old Bag of Nails at North State and Main with Aunt Ruthie, Tony, Marilyn, Cathy, Tod, Gretchen and Jerry. Tony paid the bill, very kind of him and Aunt Ruthie. She called it your 'birthday dinner'. You stopped at Cathy and Tod's for a bit after, then good-byes and home to feed the cats before traveling to Kim and Paul's to take them to a friend's house about four miles south on Rt. 315. You just returned from supper with the boys at Potbelly's. They are playing at the neighbors until seven-thirty then coming home to ready for bed at eight because they and their friends had a sleepover last night. Later, when Kim calls you pick them up and bring them home, of course. - Amorella

       1854 hours. It has been a busy and fun day. We did not have these kinds of weekly family activities while living in Mason. 

       One of the subdivisions in the Wikipedia article on "Consciousness" that I have chosen to comment on is on "Animal Consciousness". 

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Animal consciousness

The topic of animal consciousness is beset by a number of difficulties. It poses the problem of other minds in an especially severe form, because non-human animals, lacking the ability to express human language, cannot tell us about their experiences. . ..

Most people have a strong intuition that some animals, such as cats and dogs, are conscious, while others, such as insects, are not; but the sources of this intuition are not obvious, and are often based on personal interactions with pets and other animals they have observed. 

Philosophers who consider subjective experience the essence of consciousness also generally believe, as a correlate, that the existence and nature of animal consciousness can never rigorously be known.  . . .

On July 7, 2012, eminent scientists from different branches of neuroscience gathered at the University of Cambridge to celebrate the Francis Crick Memorial Conference, which deals with consciousness in humans and pre-linguistic consciousness in nonhuman animals. After the conference, they signed in the presence of Stephen Hawking, the 'Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness', which summarizes the most important findings of the survey:

"We decided to reach a consensus and make a statement directed to the public that is not scientific. It's obvious to everyone in this room that animals have consciousness, but it is not obvious to the rest of the world. It is not obvious to the rest of the Western world or the Far East. It is not obvious to the society." 

"Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals [...], including all mammals and birds, and other creatures, [...] have the necessary neural substrates of consciousness and the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors."

 . . .

Selected and edited from Wikipedia

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       First, I particularly like the way the 'Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness' stated the following:

""We decided to reach a consensus and make a statement directed to the public that is not scientific. It's obvious to everyone in this room that animals have consciousness, but it is not obvious to the rest of the world." 

This is how I feel this blog should be noted. This blog is not scientific. It is obvious to many people though that human beings are unique in the world terms of higher consciousness. I consider myself a human soul, though for understandable reasons, personified to communicate through Amorella the human spiritual heartanmind. I am nonfiction within myself. Mr. Orndorff is nonfiction to all those who know him. He writes in the introduction to this blog that it is nonfiction because that is how he views this experimental writing. I ask the reader to remember this blog represents one human's heartansoulanmind point of view. Nothing more, nothing less. Mr. Orndorff has always enjoyed stimulating thought, this is his main objective. - mh

       1932 hours. Thank you for reinforcing my private thoughts Ms Havisham. I am comforted with your unsolicited words. It is amazing to me that I use the word 'comforted' here, because it is not of my normal choice, but in this case, I cannot come up with a better one. I accept Ms Havisham as my personified soul because this is how I see her. I accept Amorella as a friend, a spiritual presence. 

At the same time, I consider myself as an authentic agnostic because deep down I question everything. The difference is that I do accept that G-D is a Reality because being naturally spiritually minded it is more than intellectually reasonable to me, it is obvious. I do not need faith for this, I have heartanmind. I have a soul to comfort my heartanmind. I have a spiritual friend who guides me to know myself better, who has guided me for decades and the self-evident truth is witnessed in seemingly endless notes and blogs. Still, I am ever an agnostic because I am ever human. - rho

       Thus, orndorff, here you sit, but you would rise and stand if need be. I am here, within and without, as your witness. Post. - Amorella