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Practically consciousness seems to mean abstraction, time displacement of both memory and future possibilities, and language, which helps with all of the above.

Animals have a very limited ability to plan, recollect, and abstract, so we tend not to think of them as conscious.

Many Republicans also have a very limited ability to plan, recollect, and abstract, so it's not entirely clear which species they belong to.

The Sapiens part of Homo Sapiens may be unrealistically optimistic in their case.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Wed Sep 8th, 2010 at 10:27:02 AM EST
[ Parent ]
"Consciousness" is a portmanteau word which means just about what someone says it means.  Leading to a dreary and lengthy round of "what are you talking about?"

After a while that gets to be a bit of a bore.

by ATinNM on Wed Sep 8th, 2010 at 10:41:18 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I think you meant 'sportmanteau'...

You can't be me, I'm taken
by Sven Triloqvist on Thu Sep 9th, 2010 at 01:51:33 AM EST
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