[MD] Digesting the world and burping Quality: An Analogy

[craigerb at comcast.net]

[Marsha]
> I do not think there is any certainty that consciousness can be constrained to the brain;
> a correlation seems obvious, but beyond that is the unknown.

We don't have any reason to think a dead brain has any consciousness, anymore than a 
chair does.  What more (if anything) a live brain needs to be conscious is as yet unknown,
but someday probably won't be.

[Mark]
> A single human cannot be a societal or an intellectual level.

Of course, but a human cannot be an organic/biological 2nd level either.

[Mark]
> Such things [a societal or an intellectual level] are outside and have purposes of
their own. 
> We can,  however, surmise that such levels exist.

But societies don't have purposes of their own.  They have only the purposes we give them.
Cells do have purposes of their own & they don't give us our purpose.  We don't surmise
the 2nd & 3rd level, we are intertwined with them.

 [Mark]
> we have no idea what the societal or intellectual consciousness is knowing.

 But we do--we just take a poll of its members.

[Mark}
> The intellectual level has a purpose
> of its own and we are as incapable of understanding it, as the
> intellectual level is incapable at understanding us. These are true
> levels, not just extensions of the human mind.

If you see a human as integrating all 4 levels, you can avoid these
conclusions.
Craig