When and only when a loop arises in a brain or in any other substrate, is a person --- a unique "I" ---- brought into being. Moreover, to which it gives it rise. Yes, shockingly though this might sound, consciousness is not an on/off phenomenon, but amidst of degrees, grades, shades. Or, to put it more bluntly, there are bigger souls and smaller souls.
Most of us are willing to eat animals of one sort or another, to smash flies, swat mosquitos, fight bacteria with antibiotics, and so forth. We generally concur that "men"(consciousnesses) such as a cow, a turkey, a frog, and a fish all possess some kind of a primitive " soul", but by God, it's a good deal smaller than ours is, --- and that, no more and no less, is why we "men" feel that we have the perfect right to extinguish the dim lights in the heads of these fractionally-souled beasts and to gobble down their once warm and wiggling, now chilled and stilled protoplasm with limitless gusto, and not to feel a trace of guilt while doing so.
Most of us are willing to eat animals of one sort or another, to smash flies, swat mosquitos, fight bacteria with antibiotics, and so forth. We generally concur that "men"(consciousnesses) such as a cow, a turkey, a frog, and a fish all possess some kind of a primitive " soul", but by God, it's a good deal smaller than ours is, --- and that, no more and no less, is why we "men" feel that we have the perfect right to extinguish the dim lights in the heads of these fractionally-souled beasts and to gobble down their once warm and wiggling, now chilled and stilled protoplasm with limitless gusto, and not to feel a trace of guilt while doing so.
