(epistemic status: controversial) Governments are conscious. They perceive events, filter perceptions for relevant events, form stable patterns of topics in attention (“thoughts”), respond to events in a way that shows intention to pursue goals, remember previous events, model other countries as pursuing goals, communicate with other countries. And in many of these cases the representatives involved do not share the beliefs they communicate. People are the neurons of a country and governments are their brains.
I’m still confused enough about consciousness that I can only directionally and approximately agree, but I do agree with that.
It gets really fun when the same individual holds multiple titles with conflicting obligations, and ends up doing things like approve and then veto the same measure while wearing different hats. I also think it’s unfortunate that we seem to have gotten way to intolerant of people doing this compared to a few decades or generations ago. We’re less willing to separate individuals from the roles they’re enacting in public life, and that makes many critical capabilities harder.
(epistemic status: controversial) Governments are conscious. They perceive events, filter perceptions for relevant events, form stable patterns of topics in attention (“thoughts”), respond to events in a way that shows intention to pursue goals, remember previous events, model other countries as pursuing goals, communicate with other countries. And in many of these cases the representatives involved do not share the beliefs they communicate. People are the neurons of a country and governments are their brains.
I’m still confused enough about consciousness that I can only directionally and approximately agree, but I do agree with that.
It gets really fun when the same individual holds multiple titles with conflicting obligations, and ends up doing things like approve and then veto the same measure while wearing different hats. I also think it’s unfortunate that we seem to have gotten way to intolerant of people doing this compared to a few decades or generations ago. We’re less willing to separate individuals from the roles they’re enacting in public life, and that makes many critical capabilities harder.