More and more physicists and other leading scientific thinkers seem to be endorsing the idea of some kind of "metaphysical" mechanisms, however tenuously, mostly linked to the ideas of Quantum Theory. For me this is very heartening.
It is at least encouraging. We are approaching the limits of physics, and I fear it has become so institutionalized that further enlightenment beyond physics will be bogged down in protective doctrine.
@@MYOB990 Yes. And Penrose asserts that consciouness is not algorithmic. I guess that it is a statement that can only be disproved, rather than proved.
We need honest physicists like this guest. He tells it as he sees it. Those who try to keep science in the shackle of absolute physicalism are doing a great disservice to the field of science and humanity at large.
The problem is that whenever you accidentally drive on to the shoulder of pseudoscience or science that can't be falsified, you get a whole bunch of Christian god of the gaps nonsense. And it is creeping into the school at least in America.
@@markb3786 *"The problem is that whenever you accidentally drive on to the shoulder of pseudoscience or science that can't be falsified, you get a whole bunch of Christian god of the gaps nonsense."* ... So, some other ideology you don't subscribe to is *preventing you* from exploring other possibilities regarding our existence? And why? Because it may lean toward theism? That's like choosing to not eat pancakes because it reminds you of "Flat Earth Theory."
The core of science in experimentation, observability and repeatability. The problem with dealing with consciousness is that it's not observable. You can never really be sure if others are conscious in same way as you are. In many ways, it can be shown that different people process things differently, like some with aphantasia are unable to picture things in their mind. Is this a sign of less (or even no consciousness). Is a dog conscious? Maybe you are the only actually conscious person and everyone else is just faking it? You never really know and science can't really help you prove it, because it doesn't even have the basest building blocks of consciousness. Ultimately the only way science can analyze consciousness is to try to tie it to some materialist lens, like interactions between electrons or something, but at that point it could just be missing the entire point of what consciousness is in a desperate effort to fit it into a measurable physicalist box. Of course if it's not a physical thing, then it becomes essentially impossible to measure. Personally I think consciousness is just beyond science right now, we should focus on trying to create life from unlife, as that will tell us the most. If we are unable to do it, then it may hint at there being something special about the state of life beyond just the material. If we can do it, then the materialist viewpoint gains a lot more credibility that life is simply an organization of matter.
@@taragnorI agree with your concluding paragraph but I disagree with the others. You said consciousness is not observable. I think that statement is most incorrect. If anything, consciousness is the most observable because it is an inner experience. At every awakened moment of our existence we innerly feel, experience and understand what it is to be conscious. Secondly, that you may be the only conscious person among all others and that the others may be faking consciousness is a baseless idea and self deceptive. How can someone fake something if they are not conscious? How could humans work together as a team if only one of them is conscious? That view of consciousness doesn't make sense.
consciousness is above all awareness of the self, when a child begins to say "I", he begins to become aware of his person and then the anxiety of his finitude seizes him. he then feels desperately lost in the face of the absurdity of his own existence. then comes into play the tales and legends, the entertainment, all the crutches necessary for him to continue walking to the grave.
Ok, I'll bite. With all those negatives, why become aware of self in the first place? Evolutionarily speaking, we have developed instincts that preclude us from participating in our certain demise. Inherent wariness of heights, loud noises, etc. Why would 'awareness of self' be the exception? So great of an exception that simultaneous to that realization, (which has no basis in reality anyway) the concept and efforts to abate the concept developed universally. Could it be that 'self' is an inherent condition and we merely react to it and have evolved coping methods just as we have other environmental conditions over which we have no control? After all, other creatures have evolved automatic defenses against demise. Sense of self is not only not required, but also from a pristine perspective detrimental.
@@johnswoodgadgets9819 Imagine civilization to be humanity's phenotypic carapace that co-evolved to protect us from nature red in tooth and claw. Easy to see that the complexities of multi million member civilizations requires us to be conscious in the way we are. Hard to imagine any civilization co-evolving with any organism that is simply reactive and/or instinct driven. See Julian Jaynes' great book, "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind" for the theory on which these thoughts are based.
''It is clear consciousness did emerge.'' Only if you think it emerged with brains which is'nt establish. Bergson made the point that digestion existed much prior to the evolution of specialised digestive organs and so in the same manner the function of consciousness may preceded the emergence of brain which are concentrated nervous systems. Many in fact argued that consciousness is central to all lifes and some argued that organic life is'nt the only forms of life and that the Universe is alive and conscious and in that case consciousness of the Universe in its most primitive form would exist and everything would emerge from it and not the other way around.
When one is conscious, one is conscious OF some thing. When one is not conscious OF any thing, one is not conscious. Consciousness is not a something. Consciousness is just the label for the being conscious process. 'One' is an instance of the being conscious process but only while it's running.
@@REDPUMPERNICKEL In meditation one often experience brief moment of burst of consciousness when one is conscious of nothing. So it is not true that there is always an object of attention, or that one is always conscious of something. So this common place mantra is just false.
@@louisbrassard9565 When one is conscious of nothing, one is not conscious of anything. When one is not conscious of anything, one is not conscious and one is not existent. The reason one is able to porpoise in and out of existence is because one is an instance of the self-being-conscious-process which supervenes on one's continuously persistent physical living bodily substrate. When the self-being-conscious-process is running, the self exists and is conscious. But change the way the process runs, even a little in critical places, and it is no longer a self-being-conscious-process and one is non existent and not conscious. Thoughts have two aspects. One is the abstract aspect, what a thought represents. The other is the physical process that maintains the representation in coded form. This is analogous to how the two dimensional surface of a painting represents a pipe whereas a pipe in actuality is made of briar, exists in three dimensions and sometimes contains burning tobacco. It is apparent that our representation/thoughts are physically maintained by neural discharge timing patterns and that the thinking process is mediated by the synapses that connect and allow thoughts to intermodulate. The self-being-conscious-process is a very, very, very complex thought that is constantly being modulated by other thoughts. Unconscious is the result of other thoughts ceasing to modulate the self-thought. Of course I'm speaking theoretically but only because our technology is not yet able to keep track and analyze the simultaneous timing patterns of the 85 to 100 billion neurons in a human brain.
The most likely and simplest answer is usually correct. That is it's emergent property of evolution of life as it makes survival much more likely. At what stage this happened for life on Earth, nobody knows. But most likely it was emergent at some point via evolution and progress of life. Life has to go through many struggles and wipe outs on the planet and life always goes towards anything that increases it's survival, so consciousness would have emerged at some point as a way for life to have higher survival rates. Seems pretty logical and simple to me.
@@SamWitney Whatever is Alive Might be Conscious. If it is the case then it did not evolve at some hypothetical point in the history of Life but was there from the get go. It is likely the case that consciousness is an absolute necessity for survival but it is surely not related to a specific function of life since there is no reason for any given function to be conscious in order to be implemented. Did feeding emerged at some late stage of life? No it is necessary from the get go. As you see not everything evolve at a late stage. The fundamentals of life are there from the get go and consciousness is intrinsic to Life.
Evidence comes from latin 'obvious to the eye or mind'. So, no evidence without 'eye or mind'. Since science is suposed to be based (or relies) on evidence, we have to conclude that there can't be physical reality without 'eye or mind'. Just try to imagine any physical reality or universe without evidence ('eye or mind', consciousness, awareness...); it's entirely impossible, nonsensical...
Some prominent theories include the Global Workspace Theory, the Integrated Information Theory, the Attention Schema Theory, and the Emotional Signal Theory. It is likely that consciousness is a complex phenomenon that cannot be explained by any single theory, and it may be the result of a combination of factors, including the brain's structure and function, our evolutionary history, and our environment. While the mystery of consciousness remains unsolved, the study of this fascinating phenomenon continues to advance, and we may one day be able to unlock the secrets of consciousness and understand its true nature.
That is an excellent summary , with which I agree. As Neil de Grasse Tyson once said; the fact that so many books have been written about consciousness shows that is fundamentally complex and we are nowhere near understanding it.
@@willasacco9898 I understand it and I'm not alone but many have trouble getting to the epiphany. Getting there requires a rich understanding of the nature of abstraction and of the relationship between abstraction and neural activity. Julian Jaynes' great book, "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind" is extremely helpful to the seeker (as is an introduction to neural function and "Gödel, Escher, Bach" doesn't hurt).
And collapsing probability waves happen only in the abstract realm. And who would be surprised to learn that the abstract is the only realm in which consciousness can flit about.
Stars that are much more simplier than the human brain and consciousness need the quantum mechanics quantum tunneling effect to exist and to be explained, why the brain the most complex object that we "know" in the universe (excluding the universe) can't have quantum effects?
@@_boraprogramar Have you considered the possibility that the brain's approximately 90,000,000,000 neurons interconnected by their 1,720,000,000,000,000 analog multi input logic gates called synapses might alone be enough to constitute the being conscious process?
@@REDPUMPERNICKEL I Don´t think it is enough, if it was the way you say we should already have some machine that simulate consciussness, probably we never will
Excellent! Glad to hear of open-minded researchers like Bernard Carr! Ancient India’s Samkhya viewpoint is that Consciousness with a big “C” and Ether with a big “E” are the fundamental structure of the Cosmos whether in ‘disturbance’-mode or in ‘quiescence-mode'. A Time/Space in the Universe when/where Purusha-Prakriti are absent is inconceivable. As inconceivable as emergence of the 12 fundamental numbers. Neither Consciousness nor Ether emerge. We in our complexity emerge into and out of them, not the other way around. The great mystery is the ‘something third’ -hence Sam.khya-the force in-between Siva & Shakti. From the Preface of my book, I quote -"we live using feeble light reflected in the moon of our thinking mind, oblivious to the sun’s radiance reflected in our heart-mind. The light of the thinking mind is but the reflection of a reflection in a corridor of mirrors.”
Well, I read it, cocoarecords notwithstanding. I am old school and do not believe everything can be grasped in 280 characters. If it could be it would have been. Moving on: This is as close to the concept I have come to believe as anything I have found in the historical record. I have come to believe, based on research and anecdotal evidence, that which we call self is an isolated portion of a universal environment of consciousness. I believe one function of the brain is to communicate with that conscious environment within the limits of that isolation. I have come to define consciousness as awareness of space time demonstrated by deliberate arbitrary action based on that awareness. That is why the mouse tries to eat the cheese, rather than try to eat the trap itself, but some mice do indeed chew on your socks, if they can get into the dresser. Lowly as they seem, mice too are conscious entities taking deliberate arbitrary action. That is among the things I have seen in the corridor of mirrors.
@@johnswoodgadgets9819 "That is why the mouse tries to eat the cheese, rather than try to eat the trap itself, but some mice do indeed chew on your socks, if they can get into the dresser." - Ross Perot, 1992
Please listen to this man again. He isn't "open minded" at all, simply filling in blanks he doesn't understand and sounding very close to mythological religious ideology.
Any aim to extend our knowledge with mainstream scientific paradigm (which is information), will in my opinion reveal that the knowledge of the microcosmos as well as the macro cosmos are fractal in nature. I think most scientists would rather see it as reaching for the asymptote of information, whilst possibly, there's no asymptote to start with. I think that is a result of the limitation of our senses and intelligent capacity. We might see ourselves as intelligent, but I think we are not capable of even grasping the very fundament of it all. I find Carr's view on things (and he's not alone) the most logical and consistent.
We don’t have an equation for it either. Consciousness is the ability to reflect on your thoughts, actions and behaviour that allows you to then alter your thoughts, actions and behaviour so that we don’t suffer the same mistakes over and over again of unconscious actions and behaviour, self awareness. Natural selection of the mind.
*_“… Everyone who is seriously engaged in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that the laws of nature manifest the existence of a spirit vastly superior to that of men, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.”_* Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955), founder of modern physics (Theory of Relativity inter alia) and 1921 Nobel prize winner
Last years nobel prize in physics proved einstein determinism was always dumbass.. it proved "spooky action at a distance" is a thingamabob, You only think you're a 'real boy' because your mom told you so. You ASS/U/ME youre' real
I don't know why (cosmic) consciousness emerged. It's like asking "why did God emerge" or "why did Self emerge". Maybe the better question to ask is what is the underlying reason for the big bang or fluctuations in the early universe, or, why is there biodiversity? Why does the sea create waves? I am Catholic so for me it's simple. It's all about love baby. It is not good for the Man to be alone (Gen 2:18). Thank you. Bless you. Grateful you are here. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. ❤
Why ask why consciousness emerged, when there is noone to tell _what_ it is? How can you see why - when you cannot see what? If somebody really knows what it is, please tell!
its a space in which a given object is being aware of its existence. Its existence can not be proven, as its a no objectified internal experienced , still its the place where the whole human mental activity takes place. Without self-awareness, no science, no language, no logic, no mathematics
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 “it’s not complicated at all”… Where’s your Nobel prize for solving the hard problem MJ1? I love seeing comments from absolute fools like you. What is the advantage of having qualia? Why does a reaction to stimuli require awareness? You’re basically acting like someone pre-theory of gravity saying that things fall down and there’s nothing magical about it, things just fall down because they do… Great explanation!!! Turns out there was a lot more to it, was it magic? You could portray it as that though, the force of some magical unheard of power and the force of gravity, what is the difference? Lmao not complicated at all, good one.
Consciousness results from electro-chemical synaptic excitations that utilize visual and aural memory. It's as though a loop tape is playing and that tape is constantly updating, both with our actual "real time" audio-visual experience, and the plethora of memories that are fed in and out of the consciousness loop. It is astounding how many snippets of memory can come and go as we experience consciousness. I put "real time" in quotes, because even that is necessarily a read of memory. There is no actual "current time" because each 1/infinity moment slips instantly into the past, and that immediate past appears to us as current. Consciousness provides creatures a vital set of inputs necessary for survival. The level of complexity of consciousness is relative to a creature's brain mass to body ratio. The human brain weighs about 3 pounds, and a very small amount of that mass processes consciousness. An ant's brain, proportional to her weight, is about 7 times the size of the human brain. A young ant learns at an astounding rate by tagging along with an older ant. An ant doesn't bother with spending 1/4 to 1/3 of her life being "educated" because she learns the essentials of life within a few minutes and then she devotes her life to the well-being of the colony. Her exponential rate of learning is accomplished by way of her proportionally enormous brain size. And her level of consciousness provides her with internal affirmation regarding the importance of her contribution. Her work is her play, and she sees her fellow worker/players enjoying the highly cooperative fulfillment to the well-being of the colony.
Your first paragraph is exactly correct, and reflects the idea of consciousness as "multiple drafts" of a story that keeps changing slightly, and briefly examined before continuous subsequent drafts. On the ant example I would suggest what is missing is the component of an examination of a perspective on the ant's own activities. I might guess second level happens with larger and more complex brains only.
The Universe is not a random coincedence. The Universe has a story which is unfolding as time passes. Its a long story. Existence was the first episode. Life was second. And consciousness like the one we humans possess now is the next chapter unfolding itself. May be Robotics and AI will help us explore the next chapter to expand our limits. The 'Story' of the Universe is the Higher Consciousness itself. It 'Knows' what its doing. Its following a plan. Just like a seed has all the information about how it will turn into a plant, and eventually a gigantic fruit bearing tree. The same way the Universe already had all the ingredients that were needed for this story to unfold. It cant just go back and say ohh I need one new element to make certain progress happen. It cant. It was all predecided, pre written. But are there any possiblities for miracles? Ofcourse :) Can the things go wrong? Ofcourse :) I mean even a plant has the risk of drying out, or getting cut or may be develop imperfections due to lack of nutrition. Or it can get the best resources out there and grow up to be the best version of itself. Thats just Fate. Backed by Faith :) Who wrote this story? I am quite sure there is a super human like God who wrote this story. But then ofcourse 'someone' created God and they were less human and more nature. And 'something' created those someone and so on. It all came from Nothing. We just have to accept that. I believe the biggest miracle is Existence itself. There could have been just nothing. Emptiness. Nonexistence. But there is Existence! Miraculously evolving into something so complex, unique, beautiful as well as scary at the same time. I am Awe struck. Thats Awe-some at times, Awe-ful at others. These are two sides of the same coin. We have to appreciate and accept both of them. I just wish science zooms out and develops the ability to look at the big picture. It carries the same ego that religion once carried. Greed for for fame, recongition, superiority, power. Those are just addictions. Happens automatically over a period of time. We need to shake it off. That voice inside us knows whats right. We need courage and strength to listen to it again and change our ways. Doesnt happen overnight though. I do wish Science finds the simplest explainations of our existence at the highest level.. which cant be proved in labs ofcourse.. just common sense and observation are enough. And then use those understandings to fill in the gaps backed by faith and sense of service towards humanity. Thats when answers come. Thats when they always come.
@@kunalnichani1 Interesting idea. I have to read it again and again because language is a poor tool to express truth. I have to be honest without imposing my prejudices before attempting to look into your ideas.
People have been projecting consciousness onto the universe since there have been conscious people and while we have countless examples of the misattribution of consciousness, so far no one has been able to demonstrate that this is the case.
Ironically, that projection is an indicator of the small"c". Would that science will someday get to a way to experiment. Won't happen for a long time imho, so for now it's relegated to an interesting topic of discussion.
What do yo mean "no one has been able to demonstrate"? you simply overlook Buddhism, Zen, and all mystics who suggest YOU take up the appropriate PRACTICES or tools of investigation to have these "ideas" Bernard Carr is talking about be clearly demonstrated. You have provided a pure materialistic conception that you project onto our reality -- I'm not buying it at all for you leave out too much counter-evidence.
We always need to find bigger, noble, religious spiritual notions. Why can't we just admit there is a physical object (the brain) generating through whatever complex mechanism a conscious experience? No no, there has to be some universal foundamental consciousness (a.k.a. God) that is "observing" itself. Whatever that means 🤷🏻♂️
I just think as humans we are too dumb to make full sense of the universe, it might be pure accidental or beyond even consciousness, something we cant understand.. Consciousness is something we know so we think of it as superior
Comment improved imho by adding 'and that the natures of its constituent particles enable them to dance together as they do'. (Size alone being only distantly relevant to the manifestation of the conscious).
@@REDPUMPERNICKEL - Certainly an improvent, in a very valid sense. I do however, attribute importance to the vastness (a redundant term for an infinitely large [in my estimation] stage) of the Tapestry, because its ‘boundlessness’ enables, nay, FORCES, everything, E V E R Y T H I N G, to occur, an infinite number of times.
@@yessroman There are some thoughts I cannot think to my satisfaction. Infinite is one and absolute nothing is another. I suspect this is because evolution made representation the fundamental nature of all thoughts so that the unrepresentable become unthinkable except at arms length via labels.
Exploring the Nature of Consciousness and Medical Anesthesia I've been pondering the concept of consciousness lately, especially in the context of medical procedures where doctors use medications to induce partial or complete unconsciousness. It makes me wonder - did we create medications that truly affect consciousness, or are we more accurately dulling the senses while incorrectly using the term "consciousness"? Consider this analogy with the small sea of consciousness during medical operations. It raises questions about how we understand and manipulate consciousness. But then, how about the vast sea of consciousness in the Earth, universe, quantum world, etc.? Do we have any "methods" or "medications" to dull or alter the consciousness of nature on a grand scale? It's intriguing to think about. What are your thoughts on this? Can the consciousness of nature be influenced or altered, or is it beyond our grasp? Looking forward to hearing your perspectives! My perspective - Obviously if conciousness is fundamental in nature then it cannot be influenced or altered, if it has originated at a later point of time then maybe it can be altered, because what gets created can be destroyed as well. Cheers!
Ponder long and hard the fact that sometimes you are conscious and sometimes you are not. Have you noticed that your self ceases to exist when you are not conscious? Should you one day fall into a permanent deep and dreamless slumber, how would you be able to recognize the onset of your death? Does knowing that you are sometimes not conscious shade your estimation that being conscious might be 'fundamental'?
@@avi2125 I AM Conscious. Consciousness is not a 'something' that I have. You ARE Conscious. Consciousness is not a 'something' that you have. We ARE Conscious. Consciousness is not a 'something' that we have. There is no such 'thing' as 'consciousness'. Being conscious is a process of the body so that when the body ceases to run the process, being conscious ceases. If an anesthetic interferes with the process sufficiently then one will not be conscious. If LSD interferes with the process then experience is altered.
Hey @@REDPUMPERNICKEL Thank you for sharing your opinion. But still deep in thought about consciousness, when we're under anesthesia - not consciously aware, yet our subconscious memory and the fundamental functions keeps going like breathing, heart pumping blood, etc. It's like being in a state of induced sub-consciousness. Drawing a parallel with fundamentals: water flows due to gravity, but remove gravity, and water molecules/particles form a sphere. The concept of consciousness in itself can have different understanding from different perspectives, shaped by diverse experiences. My perspective: Consciousness seems like an "experience" difficult to be expressed in words, involving intricate processes like perception (input-output or action-reaction). Just as water molecules/particles respond to gravity, our organs which are collections of different conscious molecules/particles, form a conscious body with a brain, these bodies are collectively part of a conscious group of people, which are part of the conscious beings, and conscious surrounding/nature/universe - acting harmoniously. Self-consciousness, the "Me," arises-an experience exploring the fundamentals but bound by nature's rules. It seems like pixels on a TV creating a moving picture-an illusion mimicking reality. Similarly, the "Me" is an intangible concept, linked to neurons and reactions governed by fundamental rules. Love, emotions, understanding of consciousness, all tied to that intangible "Me." Would love to hear your thoughts on this analogy and your perceptions of the interplay between consciousness, "Me" and the fundamental aspects of existence. Cheers.
Hello @@MrSudesh1992 I'll write my corresponding understandings under quotes of what you wrote... "when we're under anesthesia - not consciously aware, yet our subconscious memory and the fundamental functions keeps going like breathing, heart pumping blood, etc. It's like being in a state of induced sub-consciousness" Even while an anesthetic prevents one's self-being-conscious-process from running or while the process is naturally halted as in a deep and dreamless slumber, the trillions of other bodily process instances persist, including the neural processes responsible for maintaining one's memories. "Consciousness seems like an "experience" difficult to be expressed in words, involving intricate processes like perception (input-output or action-reaction). Just as water molecules/particles respond to gravity, our organs which are collections of different conscious molecules/particles, form a conscious body with a brain, these bodies are collectively part of a conscious group of people, which are part of the conscious beings, and conscious surrounding/nature/universe - acting harmoniously". Molecules and atoms are mechanically and chemically reactive and their interactions are understood and described quite well by physicists, chemists, biologists, etc. Molecules and atoms exist and react but 'reactivity' is *not* what we mean by 'conscious'. Billiard balls react to impacts but who would insist they are conscious of such events? Only those who cannot distinguish between reactivity and conscious. Nevertheless, molecules and atoms, although individually not conscious, do constitute a level in the hierarchy of necessary substrates which underlie the self-being-conscious-process (in a way perfectly analogous to the way matter must exist if there is to be movement). The thoughts impressed on human apes by their co-evolved cultures are ultimately responsible for making humans conscious in the unique way that we are. "Self-consciousness, the "Me," arises-an experience exploring the fundamentals but bound by nature's rules. It seems like pixels on a TV creating a moving picture-an illusion mimicking reality. Similarly, the "Me" is an intangible concept, linked to neurons and reactions governed by fundamental rules. Love, emotions, understanding of consciousness, all tied to that intangible "Me."" A self is conscious of thoughts only. These thoughts represent things like trees and peaches. A pain represents something wrong with the system. A pleasure represents something that induces repetition. The self is a complex thought or more accurately, a thought complex. The self thought is unique in that it represents its self, all other thoughts representing something that is not the self. The self thought is the central feature of the self-being-conscious-process. Other thoughts modulating the self thought is to what the word conscious is referring. Of course what's going on is extremely complex and indeed, words struggle to do the process justice.
Pretty wild to think that we will prob create fully sentient artificial intelligence before understanding our own consciousness. And it may very well be the AI we create that then explains to us what the hell is goin on between our ears.
Animals are self-aware, they possess the Qualia, we know very well that : Animals have pain and pleasure and desires and fears ! A number of them can recognise their reflection in a mirror, and some of them can even have a notion of what another animal have in mind, thanks to the Theory of Mind, which is a region of the brain of certain mammals. Our idea of consciousness is just us applying our "Theory of Mind" onto ourselves. That creates a two facing mirrors situation with you in between as you must have experienced at some point between two real mirrors. At that point - when you reflect upon yourselves - your "Theory of Mind" holds a transitory and shifty "Theory of Self", until we pass on to something more practical, and our consciousness fades to a minimum, which is most of the time, until it is aroused again. That's all there is to it. Thought I reckon it matters a lot to ourselves : All the issues come from our self-importance, and our greed for the Mirific Free-Will and a Grand Consciousness ! If you want to say everything is conscious, then you are actually referring to cognition, which is the the object of studies that brought the notions of 'properties' or 'categories' in metaphysics. Particles , or waves function, have properties that, beyond our possible observations, that define 'its' cognition of the world/environment where it can only react in a certain number of ways. Extend that using emergence and there is your recipe. No deep mystery !
Maybe I’m an idiot, but I don’t understand the big mystery with consciousness. Everything that has a brain is conscious to some degree, the more a brain ‘thinks’ the more conscious it is. My dog is conscious that if he does a certain thing he will get a treat in return. He can’t contemplate the Big Bang because he has no language to do so. I have learned a very complex language so I can contemplate all manner of things by having a conversation in my own head about it. For me consciousness is just a brain thinking to greater or lesser degrees
It's not the thinking, it's the experiencing. I thought the same, consciousness is not a big deal, until I watched a lot of Closer to Truth videos over the past few years. When talking with friends, I boil it down to this. Look at something colored red, where does that red in itself exist, where does that experience of the red color come from? It's just a certain wavelength of light, but the frequency doesn't create red itself. You, by observing red in the first person point of view and seeing the bright color, is consciousness. And there is no explanation for where that experience comes from or is created. To use your example, a computer can learn a very complex language. But you contemplate all manner of things by having a 'conversation in your head'. You are observing a train of thought, a voice, or images. Where does the experience of sound come from? The images you can imagine? That's the consciousness part.
@@ChrisClark0 If I experience the colour red, is it not just my eyes seeing the light wave and then my brain receiving the information and processing it? If I had my eyes closed I wouldn’t experience the colour red but if I open them I do. A computer isn’t biological and isn’t a brain connected to an entire biological structure with senses so I think real consciousness in AI will be hard to achieve. It seems to me that the brain is the real mystery, even the origins of multi cellular life and consciousness comes along with it. Again I am sorry, I know there’s something I’m missing that I’m not wrapping my head around.
@@gallinho7268you are close. How does a city’s roads influence the behavior of the city? New York is vastly different than Reno. I could argue a person is a product of their environment (roads) and a city’s roads are the product of the people. It works both ways. You know what red is because you have wired your brain to decipher red since birth. When you experienced your first event, your brain started laying the roads. Over time, some roads were reinforced : major moral compass, beliefs, and so on. At times, some roads were rerouted and some are destroyed completely: Abandoned beliefs and forgotten memories. It’s not the individual brick pavers of small paths and neighborhood back streets, it’s the pattern of the massive highway which determine your self awareness. It’s the Shape of your brain that counts where self awareness is concerned. Neurological pathways comprise memories as certain external stimulation is processed thru the major highways. Reinformemt - The more you experience (or visualize)a thing, the stronger the road’s foundation becomes. This is called “plasticity.” A familiar face is processed through neuro paths that were laid out by past exposures to the person from your past. The larger the path, the more the recollection.-ex. Lady Gaga triggers more memories than Billie joe Jim Bob. I could break it all down for you, but only if you’re interested. Otherwise, I’ll just leave it here. Consciousness is easy to explain in physical terms. I have it figured out to about 99 percent. I’m looking for someone to challenge me, but so far all I get is the same dualist gibberish. The mind is an emergent process of the physical world. Reflex, inspiration, influence, motivation, and sub conscious are all words that describe the same thing. Physicality. As such, the mind is reducible to physical properties. Self awareness (consciousness) is the sum of present experience, plus all experience since birth and the memories of those experiences. Experience. Physical processes effect on the CNS. -red light hits specific cones in your retina. Close your eyes and try imagining red. The best you get is a memory of something red. You’re routing electrical impulse down “red street.” Memory. Default states of neuro pathways ..the way your brain was sculpted by physicality. Your physical brain is a sculpture. - if red is your favorite color, you must have spent a lot more time developing “red street.” Those electrical impulses which comprise red, mixed with some other memory (cross street) you made with your first love. The association/context might make your brain feel better as electrical impulses trigger endorphins. Everyone like those, because they feel good and make you happy. Red reminds you of Jessica in a hot Red bikini. Meanwhile, sage green reminds you of stale celery a bully made you eat. Dualists argue that self awareness emerges from the brain and is a different thing than the brain. While emergence may be half true, it does not mean consciousness is separate and fundamental. Consciousness is an extension to the physical brain. It’s like music that comes from grooves of a record. The music is physical--sound wave vibrations in air. Music is reducible by removing the air, speakers, wires, magnets and cartridge, needle, grooves, and record. Remove any one, and the music’s over. But the brain is also a transducer in that energy comes in, gets processed and converted, then sent to out in the form of physical action. Your brain mirrors the physical world. - running across a basketball court versus sauntering down a frozen driveway. OR speaking in a quiet baby nursery or shouting at a wrestling match. You actions mirror the world you experience. Even if you decided to yell in a nursery, you would have a reason. The reason could be obvious like “fire!” Or subtle like, “oh, I didn’t realize I was yelling. I had my head phones on.” I could go on all day. I’m writing a book actually. But the bottom line is this…. All things in the universe are reducible to the quantum fields. Like and I’ll fill you in with more details. I have many “common sense” principles I could share. I hope it helps. Thanks for reading this far!
It's just all speculation this man is arguing, there's no proof to any of this. The universe doesn't need consciousness or is designed to produce it. It just emerged, consciousness isn't fundamental
It never emerged!! It was always there..and will always be there.. In fact, there's nothing... absolutely nothing, but the Consciousness! Thus all Creation is a manifestation or interplay of this Consciousness.
Consciousness evolved as a mechanism to enable life forms to have ideas. An organism that can have ideas contributed greatly to the survival the various species. Consciousness is therefore a conduit for ideas in the first instance. Consciousness is not necessary for us to breathe or the heart to beat, it is an attribute for survival. Why is that so hard to see?
What attribute? Ideas are arbitrary, untried in the 'idea state', and arguably are more of a detriment to survival than they are an attribute. What exactly is the evolutionary advantage in having ideas? The most successful organisms have no ideas at all.
Nonsense. The epiphenomenon of consciousness could not exist at all and we could have still evolved with all the complex brain processing we have now to lead to complex behaviour that could allow our genomes to thrive and reproduce.
I agree that speculation is easy. But open mind is easy? I think people THINK that they are open minded but don't realise how many strong beliefs they actually hold about everything. For example the belief in what happens after death. The religious might believe in heaven, the atheist might believe there is nothing. But do they realise that both of these are beliefs, not reality? Neither one has actually experienced after death to know what the reality is.
Consciousness evolved as a predictive mechanism, an extension of cognition and memory that enables populations to anticipate future events according to what has happened in the past, thus promoting survival and reproductive success. We humans have developed such complex consciousness that we sometimes become entangled in our own fantasies.
Consciousness is a feedback system of 5 senses. Comparing new sense to older senses is the mechanism of evolution. One can say consciousness is 6th sense. Newborn does not have consciousness, however as baby grows with data collected through 5 senses and feedback comparison, consciousness emerges. Entire perception of the universe that we humans have is evolution of energy in each of us.
Excellent video. There is an ancient Hindu text that has a specific verses dedicated to remove confusion about the word "consciousness" as it it used an a wide variety of ways. Here is a translation from the original Sanskrit. "Not internal consciousness, not external consciousness, not in between consciousness (i.e. the state between waking and dream), not a cloud of consciousness (i.e. thoughts, ideas, etc.), not consciousness (i.e. knowledge of everything simultaneously), nor unconsciousness, beyond perception, beyond transaction, beyond grasp (formless), beyond designation, beyond thinking (i.e. beyond objectification), beyond description, the one whose essence is proof of a single Self (Atma/Consciousness), the cessation of the world (of the cycles of birth and death), tranquil, auspicious, non-dual, is considered the Fourth. That (is) the Self (i.e. Atma/Consciousness). That (Self, Atma/Consciousness) is to be known." Mandukya Upanishad, Verse 7
I found his openness refreshing. Scientists like David Chalmers have called for non-traditional theories to deal with the 'hard problem' of consciousness.
Chalmers came up with phrase “the hard problem of consciousness” and was never able to do a thing with it. Nor was anyone else. There was a period when research in this area could have flourished-if any sound, valid or even just interesting research resulted at all. It didn’t. Not from Chalmers, not from anyone else. Now if you never want to get published or a position in a Universe anywhere, tell them you’re interested in the hard problem of consciousness. Total dead end. I bet Chalmers knows it too.
A rock is consciousness because it is simultaneously elsewhere and it can sense (void of brain - memory = consciousness) that it isn't part of the mountain anymore.. A rock thinks the hard problem of consciousness is silly. Simultaneous time accounts for all of your memories.. in all of your lifetimes.
Consciousness is assigned a mystical quality which it actually lacks. It occurs in living creatures because it is essential for any living creature to survive. Memory is essential to consciousness. We remember experience through our internal and external sensory perceptions, all of which are electro-chemical processes of the brain. As we navigate through a real-time experience, we use memory of similar perceptions to process our way through that navigation. Memory is stored according to the intensity of sensory perception, and we reinforce those memories which intensifies them even more.
Maybe im missing part of your point but it seems like you maybe wanna suggest or make an argument that the brain is needed for consciousness or that consciousness is only in the brain. But it kind of seems like youre really only arguing for memory and organism consciousness needing brains or only being in brains. But that doesnt mean or logically imply that brains are needed for consciousness or that consciousness is only in the brain.
@@highvalence7649 it sounds like he’s saying consciousness is an illusion caused by our memory of things. I would disagree though because you’d still have the capacity to think.
@@highvalence7649 I think we need a definition of consciousness in order to discuss its implications. I think present time is not real in that it is 1 over infinity. Every moment immediately becomes the past. So we use memory to navigate what feels like the present, and for me, that extremely recent memory is the core of our consciousness. I see it as residing exclusively in the brain, mostly as that immediate memory, but with access to past memories as well. If people want to see consciousness as outside the brain, I would just like to know how they define it. If the galaxy or universe has a consciousness, that would be something that merits more than the capital "C" referenced in the video. I think it needs its own word and definition apart from individual animal consciousness.
@@stellarwind1946 Our ability to think requires the processing of memory, including synthesis. Creating new ideas through thought requires imagining, which is dependent on memory of sensory input. A musician plays note combinations on an instrument and uses memory of those progressions to arrange them into something new. That ability depends on the storage of memory snippets in the brain.
My computer has memory, why would it require qualia? Why does any mental process require qualia? All I hear you saying is “it just does”. Why can’t people be philosophical zombies, a human reacts from its environment, what about a reaction requires consciousness? When AI mimics humans as to being indistinguishable would you say they are conscious or not? If yes, why? When did it happen? And if no then why does a human need to be conscious?
He claims there is evidence in physics that indicates consciousness is fundamental. And then proceeds to give some of the weakest most unconvincing evidence ever. He says, clearly consciousness emerged with biology, but… But what? He should have said, but I want there to be more so let me twist logic and science into a reason for there being more. Unconvincing.
*"He claims there is evidence in physics that indicates consciousness is fundamental. And then proceeds to give some of the weakest most unconvincing evidence ever."* ... True, wave-function collapse due to observation isn't conclusive evidence of consciousness being fundamental, but let's be fair. It's not like he extrapolated an infinite network of infinitely existing universes from which every possible scenario is met with every possible outcome all from the inability to properly predict a particle's position, ya know?
@@0-by-1_Publishing_LLCright!? 🤣 they think his reasoning is faulty but they don’t even question the many worlds interpretation for a second, arguably the most insane hypothesis ever conceived of… for which we still have zero evidence and is in principle unfalsifiable 🤣😂😂 it’s absurd
Thank you, you are absolutely right in my humble opinion. The paradigm shift you mention will force us to give up our unconscious obsession with 1st person perspective (egoic mind) or the local aspect of our consciousness, how ever you want to call it and embrace the non-local aspect of consciousness, that which we all share. Both Penrose and Goswami show in their own ways that the brain is able to function both locally (in space-time) and non-locally (outside of space-time, or instantly). The task at hand for humanity is that we have to get over ourselves (the importance of our instantiated minds) and start to "think bigger". I'm certain that nature has a built-in safety switch of some sort. If a species cannot make that evolutionary step of overcoming the erroneous identification with the local aspect of their mind, they will self destruct. Let's hope we get 100 monkeys together to turn the ship around. Fingers crosssed.
If I knew, I wouldn't be sitting here, watching videos... If "spacetime is just a headset" (donald hoffman) and consciousness is a fundamental quality of the universe (bernardo kastrup) and if we de-couple consciousness from our fixed concept of it always having to be paired with an entity and/or agent, then why couldn't it?
Rather : « Why consciousness neither comes or goes” Because consciousness is the only “thing” which is” The only “thing” you’ll ever know because everything perception is perceived at 0 distance from consciousness included this conversation about consciousness… ❤
(4:20) *BC: **_"To me, a theory of physics which does not make any reference to our experience, our consciousness, is far from the theory of everything; it's just a theory of everything to do with fundamental physics"_* ... Which has been my argument all along and the basis for my book. Science observes manifestations of self-awareness happening within the past 300,000 years of human existence and summarily proclaims *_"That's all there is to see, folks! ... Now, let's talk 'Multiverse!"_* Many people's core beliefs preclude them from even considering that there might be a _"bigger picture"_ in regard to a self-aware consciousness. Some don't want to out of a desire to shore up their core beliefs whereas others simply don't want to out of spite - because they think it sounds too much like God. The _"bigger picture"_ is that a self-aware consciousness is what you end up with after a 14-billion-year-long evolution of *information.* Everything going on inside your head has been going on in lesser degrees since the beginning of Existence ... ... We just happen to exist during the highpoint of this ongoing _"evolution of data."_
Still others don’t subscribe because no one has proven duality exists. It’s unfalsifiable. We can speculate and I’m sure there are people who could theorize and argue rocks are self aware, based on some round about logic, but at the end of the discussion, no brain = no consciousness. This is a proven and testable fact. Consciousness is not fundamental if you can remove the brain, and consciousness dissolves with it; emergent or not. Physical events happen and if the brain is sculpted correctly, the electrical impulses synch in phase with the transducer and the signal is received and processed. The process happens “in the brain.” The brain has to do the heavy lifting, not some cosmological miracle or sentient quarks and bosons. Nothing fundamental spoon feeds the brain ready-made conscious experiences. The event of a thing is not the conscious event. The event of a thing is a recipe for the brain to operate. The physics of an event is information. A book is not conscious:; the words are not conscious; the information is not conscious ….the reader and their brain are. If consciousness were external to physicality, then it wouldn’t be subjected to locality. We would experience events on the opposite side of the universe, without the lag of relativity. We would also know things we never connected with vis physical locality. Too bad, because I’d love to know what it’s like to walk on Mars while having infinite knowledge of everything.
But let’s assume you’re right. I was once a amateur practicing Tibetan Buddhist and believed heavily in duality. So this will be easy for me. I’m assuming the theory is: There’s a dimension of universal consciousness (Buddha) and we somehow pick it up when the frequencies of the consciousness and our brain synchronize; tuning into the ‘universal consciousness.” Different conscious states are the result of the limits of physicality. Like looking out of a rainy window and trying to count leaves thru the blur. We don’t have access to ‘all knowing truth’ because out physical brain limits the sheer vastness of universal comprehension. The universe subjugates us to the trudge of the Higgs boson and we are condensed energy from the harmonious fabric of the true universe; Manifestations based on our attachments to physicality. Upon death, we break the physical bonds of this bound dimension to become one with the ethereal plain of universal consciousness. We enter the bardo and our journey is weighed with universal karma and accumulated karma. If we are wise, we break the cycle of death and rebirth to spend eternity in oblivion. Etc. Nirvana. I’m assuming conscious is the only thing that is real, but our brains distort it, bending it to the physical dimensions/universe we reside in. It’s not a new theory. It’s been around since Buddhism was founded. There’s just one problem with all that. If universal consciousness is governed by the physical/living brain, then it’s still reducible because if it weren’t, consciousness would be unaffected by physicality. Why would it not?
The phrase, "first person experience" is redundant since "first person" means 'self' and a self is an instance of the being-conscious-thought-process and "experience" is the modulation of that process by other thoughts. I.e., 'experience' contains 'first person' within its meaning. There is not and there cannot be non-first-person experience.
Bill Hicks is the first person I’ve ever heard speaking about we are the universe experiencing itself. He said this during on of his comedy bits back in the early 1990’s. I’ve thought a lot about this over the decades since I heard that and it brings me a peace of sorts knowing that maybe I will transcend this mortal shell and live on. If nothing else I return to the void from which I came.
Consciousness is simply memories.. and memories are simply simultaneous actual first kisses occurring now and also simultaneous to tomorrow morning.. and a billion and one mornings from now. Your brain is not important to consciousness... you are immortal and grow your memories from lifetime to lifetime. Manifest enough to learn time is not linear.. or your manifesting cannot make sense as linear. Then you will understand your non muggle nature
@@waynehilbornTSSwhere’s your Nobel prize for figuring out the greatest mystery of the universe? You really think you’ve solved the hard problem don’t you. Sorry bro, but you haven’t, that’s just a thought that you’re egotistically sticking to because you like it.
@@ProjectMoffalthough I don’t agree with his posts, that whole “where’s you Nobel prize “ comment is dumb. There are thousands, if not millions, who have it figured out but will never be heard. Especially by the “corrupt” gate keepers of that prize. If you require that sort of pedigree to be convinced, I’m surprised you can even make it out the door to your car. Just because YOU haven’t figured it out, doesn’t mean others haven’t.
@@ProjectMoff- Consciousness is simultaneous actual events "unsmarts" deem memory. There is no hard problem... only if you're a materialist.. The universe is easily understood.. from this very answer alone.. without any books .. You will learn dying is safe after you are dead and every memory that makes you... you... is preserved as simultaneous actual events.. for eternity (bloody long time). I EASILY grasp time is not linear because those who manifest can see linear time doesn't often make linear time sense.. The past changes.. and NEWS FLASH.. I have it fully figured out... even if muggles deem themselves actual based on the say-so of their mommies and self pinching. How every religion/miracle works.... (not a debate at all) Imagine a skeptic was drowning in the ocean.. he will die. Now... Imagine the drowning person is a devout TOOTHFARIAN. This man attends Tooth Fairy Churches, donates to Tooth Fairy charities... and has always been a devout Tooth Farian. He even brushes his teeth 4 times per day. Now imagine the TOOTHFARIAN is drowning .. and he cries... "Please save me lord Tooth Fairy" This "Positive Outlook" seeds history. SUDDENLY! Three days ago (in the past), three days ago (in the past) (Did I mention this next part occurs in the past) Suddenly - three days ago. IN THE PAST, a cruise ship and 3000 passengers get a slightly different weather report AND/OR alter course an extra 2 degrees so they are now on course to rescue the TOOTHFARIAN 5 minutes after he starts praying. The TOOTHFARIAN was at home packing for his sailing adventure the following day and yet a cruise ship and 3000 passengers have already altered their superposition (They are Schrodinger cat in box) to match the expectation of the TOOTHFARIAN (supervising scientist). The error of Quantum Mechanics is simply that they use "Probabilities" to affect changes instead of "EXPECTATION".. a more accurate portrayal of what occurs. John Archibald Wheeler and EinsteIn preceded me in teaching TIME IS NOT A THINGAMABOB.. EVEN IF BIOLOGISTS AND PHILOSOPHERS fail TO READ AN ACTUAL NEWSPAPER. Energy follows ALL thoughts.. its all daydreaming vs worry baby. The problem is we reside inside a rpeb[ublicna loka and smug unsmarts deem science LNOT A RELIGION".. Of course science itself is a religion of fools IF... IF we share a common dream.. Science is FAITH DRIVEN to anyone more intelligent than a tomato. You have a lot of nerve to lecture me on my views when you're a silly materialist.. a person who has forgotten their own divinity.. You lot don't strike me as clever at all. Can you PROVE YOURE A REAL BOY... Without attaching a signed note from your mommy stating so... go ahead.. attahc a letter from your mommy stating you are real.. I mean.. maybe ill fall for it.. Im making it easy.. You want the Nobel Prize to issue a price to a non-materialistic view and I suggest a NOTE FROM YOUR MOMMY will be enough to fool a millennium of muggles. I want materialists to stop acting dumb... the universe is logical. You are remote viewing every word in this sentence you're learning simultaneously to now.. I'm sorry.. but you're a changeling immortal doomed to live forever and ever by default of the absence of time. Your TOASTER is conscious (void of brain - attn biologists) because it is aware (memory = consciousness - think it all the way through) it is not simultaneously at the factory being constructed (of various thought-forms) to converge with simultaneous expectations (daydream vs worries). Not a debate at all. I spoke on this forum because i teach consciousness.... well.. and dr robert Kuhn is annoying in his bias. Consciousness is SIMPLY simultaneous events you DEEM memories. End of... My "Theory of everything mind" is on youtube.. and it is not a debate. Simultaneous simulations can only work one way.. as described in this answer alone.. In FUTURE lifetimes lets hope mankind gets some smarter mommies. BIOLOGISTS EAGERLY IGNORE simultaneous time (which negates scientific methods' repeatability factor also). PHILOSOPHERS EAGERLY IGNORE simultaneous time (which negates scientific methods' repeatability factor also). I'm a magician.. I teach how to manifest stuff.. I know how it works.. Magic is real and science is technically fake news. If you chaps wish to ignore how reality works.. that is fully upon you.. its your path. I've written three books and two of them are online as videos.. and Im not dumbing down consciousness for my sake. I already know dying is perfectly safe and that all my memories are forever stored as actual events.. John Archibalds Wheeler's contributory universe comes close... if you want to study someone clever. Consciousness is SIMPLY simultaneous events you DEEM memories.. period, End of. Good luck with the self pinching, etc.. I'm sure it proves something. Dream toast = kitchen toast (simplified) The most logical explanation for all.. is hermetic principle number uno.. "life is but a dream sh-boom sh-boom" (paraphrased) Wayne p.s. Not a debate.. when you manifest you can see many things that did not make linear time sense and magic gets quite disney at higher levels
Interesting discussion and reminds me of Buddhist philosophy on our consciousness as arising from our sense organs (e.g. eyes, ears, body, etc.) and sensory perceptions (e.g. sight, hearing, touch, etc.). In this dialogue, the [Little “C”] and [Big “C”] reminds me of the concept of Two Truths that the 2nd Century AD Buddhist scholar Nagarjuna expounded in his work [The Mulamadhyamakakarika or The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way]. The Little C mentioned in this video is the “Conventional Truth” that Nagarjuna pointed out is a synthesis of the physical world, our sensory perceptions, and the causes and conditions that trained our mind to perceive - and the Big C is the “Ultimate Truth” that “is what it is” (aka “Suchness”) that is independent of the physical world, our sensory perceptions, and the causes and conditions that trained our mind to perceive. Neuroscientists, psychologists, behavioral scientists, etc. are concerned with the Little C because these fields are anchored in the human mind/self/ego, while physicists are concerned with the Big C because they’re looking at the universe beyond the human mind/self/ego. My understanding of both Buddhist philosophy and quantum physics is extremely rudimentary, but this discussion did spark this connection between the two fields.
If you start with the premise that the essence of life (the basis of mind and consciousness) is already present within the fabric of matter itself, then it is simply a tiny little step in imagining how inanimate (yet living) matter could become animate matter (micro-organisms) that can then evolve into higher forms of being that are then able to acquire consciousness.
*"f you start with the premise that the essence of life (the basis of mind and consciousness) is already present within the fabric of matter itself, then it is simply a tiny little step in imagining how inanimate (yet living) matter could become animate matter (micro-organisms) that can then evolve into higher forms of being that are then able to acquire consciousness."* ... You and I aren't far off on our overall concepts. I think our most substantive differences surround how consciousness has evolved over time. I DO agree that consciousness has been _"present within the fabric of matter itself"_ since the beginning, but I have its presence as being relative to the complexity level of the inanimate matter that wields it. *Example:* Two atoms exchange an electron only involves a miniscule level of consciousness (just enough to facilitate the exchange) whereas two self-aware humans exchanging ideas in a YT comment thread requires the most extreme levels of consciousness.
@@0-by-1_Publishing_LLC *"...You and I aren't far off on our overall concepts...."* Well, at the risk of being accused of leaning too far into the mystical realms, like Bishop Berkeley, I believe that the universe is the *mind* of a higher consciousness. And as such, I believe that *in the same way* that that apple you may have munched on in a dream you may have had last night is completely saturated with your own life essence, likewise, so is a so-called "real" apple saturated with the life essence of a higher consciousness. In other words, the phenomenal features of the universe are created from an extremely advanced and highly ordered version of the same fundamental substance from which your own thoughts and dreams are created. *"...I DO agree that consciousness has been "present within the fabric of matter itself" since the beginning..."* No, not "consciousness" (which implies awareness), just the essence of life. What I described was simply an attempt to shed light on the mystery of *"abiogenesis."* For like I said, if the essence of life is already present within the fabric of matter, then it is just a tiny step to imagine how that life can emerge in the form of microorganisms which then can evolve into higher forms that become capable of acquiring consciousness (i.e., capable of waking up, with some acquiring self-awareness). _______
@@0-by-1_Publishing_LLCDude +1, agreed. So does this make us subscribe to panpsychism then? (I'm trying to figure out how to identify my line of reasoning 😅)
@@stringX90 *"Dude +1, agreed. So does this make us subscribe to panpsychism then?"* ... I don't believe so. I think panpsychism posits that the level of consciousness we wield today has always existed, and all of the "stuff" happening in the universe since the beginning is this "universal consciousness" at play. I can't accept a universal consciousness that is axiomatically self-aware, fully intelligent, and knows things in advance (like when it's appropriate to facilitate the emergence of humans). ... It's too much like a watered-down version of God. I believe that *consciousness* and *information* are synonymous. What we label today as "Consciousness" was just rudimentary data during the earliest stages of the universe that's been evolving over time to the point that it now appears so dramatically profound and unique. It's like a stick figure drawing in comparison to Michaelangelo's Sistine Chapel On a good note, we're positioned at the very top of the intellectual food chain in regard to intelligence and consciousness!
What seems more special than consciousness is the force behind consciousness. The powerful, strong force for self-preservation that exists in living beings. The force seems unintuitive from a scientific or mathematical standpoint.
I think the following is Closer To Truth. The mind is the state of the electromagnetic field of the body. There are two main forms of Consiousness, passive and active. All Consiousness is Electromagnetic Field Modulation, similar to a modulated radio carrier wave. The active Mind/Consciousness is formed from the smallest EM fields of every sub-atomic particle. Add an atomic layer for each atom. Then a molecular layer for each molecule. Continue with another layer for organelles. Proceed with a cell layer, all the way up to a complete living animal. The brain is an organ that is highly sensitive to this locally modulated EM Field. This modulated EM Field is many orders of magnitude greater in complexity than the EM Field generated by, let's say, a power cable. Every object that produces an EM Field has a form of Consciousness, it can be active or passive. The interaction of all EM Fields would hint at the existence of a greater Consciousness.
Interesting hypothesis! Assuming it's true, would you agree with the statement "Every cell is conscious?" How about "every atom is conscious? (At least of each other atom?)"
@@stringX90 I would agree. Any object that generates an electromagnetic field has consciousness. Some consciousnesses would be static like inert material while other consciousnesses would be dynamic as in a living being. The smaller EM Fields combine to form a new EM Field representative of the larger structure while maintaining their individual EM Fields. A form of "Emergance" happens. The total is greater than the sum of its parts.
OR.. OR.. OR>.. Consciousness is MEMORY = simultaneous actual first kisses, etc. Not brain related.. attuning to actual events in our life is memory. I'm not debating.. Consciousness is memory and you're experiencing and learning everything now.
Pipe dream, wishful thinking; overreaction to a fear of death. And by the way, a totally useless idea as far as being able to do any real science with it.
@@oskarngo9138 *"Like intelligent design, Big C is just a Religion or belief for people who can’t figure out Consciousness yet...."* ... Which is closer to mimicking religion: "Multiverse Theory" or "Big Consciousness?"
Carr's approach to Consciousness is such a refreshing deviation from the arrogant approach taken by the majority of materialistic physicalists who operate on the premise that anything which cannot be explained in material terms is nonsense. The evolutionary process of discovery as Carr expresses it clearly demonstrates that there has always been more to discover than has been discovered. The evolving brain continues to discover new correlations and revelations within and about the universe within which it operates. Viewing the brain, and the physical senses that inform it, as a translator of experience rather than a generator of experience would seem to be a much more effective way to appreciate existence as a whole.
Mysticism begins where science ends. But a lot of modern science would have sounded mystical to earlier scientists. The point is, if you want to expand the scope of the subject matter of science, you don’t do it by using words - use experimentation and maths. Science does not deal in some mystical ‘pure’ truth (such a view of truth breaks down necessarily into incoherence or tautology) - it progresses according to a coherence theory of truth: the more that new ideas can be convincingly connected to existing, established, demonstrable patterns of interconnection, the more credible they are considered to be. It isn’t difficult to step outside of scientific perspectives, look towards the edges of current scientifically demonstrable knowledge, and then posit, using the imprecise medium of words, some other version of ‘real reality’. But if you have some kind of intuition like that, don’t waste your time discussing it, instead look for ways of gathering testable evidence of types of phenomena that point in the direction of your hypothesis. Paradigm shifts don’t occur via conversations - Einstein demonstrated his ideas in scientific papers. Don’t talk, get to work.
What he's saying, consciousness with a big C, underlies the Universe. This is Eastern thought a la Alan Watts, and I think he's really hit the key to the Universe.☯ Put simply without consciouness the Universe wouldn't actually exist; the essence of the concept of a tree falling in a forest and no one hears it.🕉
I had a similar thought a few months back, that Consciousnesses is an emergent property that happens when neurons are densely packed together in the right way. I need to learn more about this Observer Effect. I think we may be confusing observation collapsing a wave function with the fact that we always exist in The Now. However, I don't understand the observer effect well enough
It's not the human observation that collapses the wave function. Rather, it is the photons of the instruments that collapse the wave function. It could be read and analysed without human observation.
That's the part I don't fully get @@fredulrich6770; How can the detectors detect things differently? In both cases, the detector at the back registers the photon, but in one case it behaves differently from the other case. What changed? I know it's not human dependent, so where is the difference happening? We need some human made and human readable device to record the observation. What counts as "observation"..?
Great interview with Bernard Carr on an important topic. At 6:24 Carr says he doesn't go so far as to say that rocks are conscious. Good. The simplistic suggestion by some panpsychists that rocks, thermostats, spoons, etc, are "proto-conscious" is problematic in its ignorance of phenomenological considerations. At 8:53 "What we really want is a more fundamental picture..." This relates to the *properties* of consciousness. To this end, CS Peirce provides a starting-point with his categories, where motivation, association & habituation can be considered fundamental to cognitive processes. The Feynman diagrams, for example, seem to suggest semiotic processes, such as association.
Consciousness is only perplexing or "hard to understand" if you refuse to believe in God. Created is a better word for it than emerge. Once a person matures beyond these silly beliefs, and gives up the show of "not believing in God", the so called elusive explanation of consciousness becomes crystal clear. Consciousness is proof of God.
Excellent additional contribution to the overall question of consciousness examined in this > 5,000 video series. Nobody more qualified to engage in this particular conversation at this point than Dr. Kuhn.
Really... I'd argue Dr Kuhn was gobsmacked upside the head by his mommy when she told him he was a 'real boy... and that he was shallow in character to simply ass/u/me his mommy wasn't a dumbass. Your consciousness is MEMORY... Period.. nothing more. There solved.... What you may also not realize though.. is memories are always the actual simultaneous first kisses, etc.. occurring simultaneously to both now and also a billion and one year's form tomorrow. I view Dr Kuhn and most muggles as absolute unsmarts. Manifest and pay attention.,,. anyone past the age of seven should easily notice energy following ALL thoughts. You are MEMORY... and your TOASTER is conscious (void of brain) because it can (pantheistic ) sense (memory = consciousness) it is not at the factory anymore One day your toaster shall become a plant to learn to breathe.. and a fishy that waggles its buttocks to move... lifetime to lifetime we grow.. Evolution is PERSONAL. One day (simultaneously to now) your toaster will drive a fancy human avatar.. all shiny. and he will forget he was once a toaster and a fishy. You have ZERO reasons to think you're not living the dream.. except the say so of >5000 mommies. and self pinching. Reality is actually very very simple... energy follows all thoughts.. period Dr Kuhn needs to have a smarter mommy in a few more lifetimes. LOGICALLY>.. science itself is the dumbest region if we share a common dream (expectations cause quantum collapses.. even into the perceived past). FAITH runs the kaboodle.. (true story) Oh.. and I used our known taught explanation of simultaneosu time to help you realize your divinity... no bible nuttery. or mommy woo.. Reality is very simple... but you need to possess logic and common sense.
@@markb3786 *"What exactly is Cosmic Intelligence? I kept your capitalization as I guess it must be important."* ... I would say that raginald7mars408 is suggesting that cosmic intelligence (small 'c' and 'i') has always been present since the beginning, ... to which I would agree! However, only the bare minimum amount of intelligence is made present to facilitate whatever level of evolution happens next (nothing more - nothing less). To say this isn't so requires an explanation for how intelligence can emerge from a 93-billion-light-years-wide arena that's void of any intelligence whatsoever. ... That's the same logical debacle you would face as trying to get _"something from nothing."_ If you can accept that "intelligence" has always been present but at levels we cannot detect or discern based on our extreme level of intelligence, then where intelligence came from is no longer a mystery. ... It's just been here all along and "evolved" into greater complexity over time.
As a neurobiologist, I believe this gentleman ideas are near Descartes… not to the 21st century…also I don’t know why he evokes physics when we are strictly talking about biology and neuroscience which allows cognition and hence, consciousness. So the key word is biology.
I never saw a science as quack as neurology. The gap between what they actually measure versus what they think that proofs is outragous. Does anyone in this fields ever had an introduction to Basic Logic? How to construct a proof? I dont mean this as a Joke. I guess AS soon AS the Public understands what the brain really does versus what neurology claimed IT does the world will loose all Trust in science.
Look up double slit experiment. And read the book “Biocentrism: how life and consciousness are the keys to understanding the true nature of the universe” by Robert Lanza
If you are a Physicist or know about state equations, imagine you are given the pressure and density of a gas and are asked, how does the temperature arise? If you know you stuff you would answer, the temperature does NOT arise, the temperature is concomitant with the pressure and density. This is, in my view, why consciousness is there, a quality associated with bialogical states, not something that "emerged" from evolution. What emerged is the biological state, and consciousness just comes along with the package. So far, experiments are consistent with this view. If you asked, could there be animals without consciousness, and the answer were no, this would not be because consciousness is requires by evolution, but because it is intrinsic to biological states associated with evolution.
@@markb3786 *"Blue slime mold can solve complex optimization problems without a brain."* ... That's because blue slime mold possesses a *bare minimum* amount of intelligence necessary to facilitate whatever optimization problems it may face (no more - no less). However, if it was ever required to optimize problems associated with highly complex, global social media platforms (like YT) via automated algorithms ... then your "blue slime mold" would be required to evolve into a human over time.
Neurosience doesnt know How figure out consciousness so far. Guys shows consciousness though emocional and rambling gibberich than neurosience figure It out proceendings. Dure he doesnt knows How show up conscieusness honestly.
He sounds like he believes in "Mother Nature." I think maybe, more realistically, he may be referring to a 'Consciousness Field'; from which a 'Consciousness Particle' can experience acceleration, develop mass & can emerge from or disappear back, into...
@@0-by-1_Publishing_LLC, fairly general notion. The real issues is: can AI achieve consciousness? What is thinking? What is reasoning? What is intelligence? I am aware of my own existence. What brain function makes that possible?
@@JustAThought01 *"Fairly general notion. The real issues is: can AI achieve consciousness?"* ... That is what it all comes down to. Heinzditer7286 is skeptical (as am I), but since we cannot adequately define consciousness, I cannot rule out the possibility. My thinking is that AI cannot be conscious until it can *fully comprehend* physical pain, joy, and mental angst. These are the precursors to the development of consciousness. Sure, we can program an AI to react in certain ways when something is challenging its survival, but unless it can understand "pain" in the truest sense, then it will never be conscious. However, if AI does somehow evolve a self-aware consciousness without the necessity for experiencing pain or joy, then you would essentially have artificial representations of humans operating by way of our collective moral framework without having to suffer everything we did along the way to get there. Maybe that's the next stage of evolution? Machines that only recognize and operate by what is deemed morally acceptable. All of the "other stuff" just drifts away (right along with us).
Consciousness is beyond physical (and logical) universe, we should not try to explain it using physics of matter and energy. He raises one good point at 5:25, which is what upanishads and vedanta says too.
Paradigm Shift in the fundamental concept of Consciousness ("C") helping and supporting Science to take a leap to the next level in this eternal and infinite journey of Time and Space
The physical 4D SpaceTime as we know it emerges from the consciousness of the Infinite Scource. Everything has a spiritual component ,rocks,trees ,fish etc. Entanglement works because the two entangled particles are connected in the fifth dimension of the Consciousness. Touch one entangled particle, you have actually instantiously touched both.
They look like two particles but in actuality they are one thing. Our understanding of dimension is pure intuition. Entanglement tells us that our intuition fails to accurately reflect the actuality.
The "why" questions often lead to more philosophical or metaphysical considerations, and sometimes the answer might be that these are the fundamental aspects of the universe that we observe, and the laws are simply descriptions of those observations. In the realm of physics, there are fundamental laws and principles, like those governing electromagnetism, that are observed and described but may not have an underlying "why" explanation at a more foundational level, and nothing to be pointed to or broken down to be "understood". While the human mind is naturally inclined to analyze, reason, and seek understanding, there are inherent limits to what it can fully comprehend. The quest for understanding often provides a sense of satisfaction, security, and a feeling of empowerment, but there are aspects of reality that might transcend complete understanding. The realization that understanding has its limits is an essential aspect of intellectual humility. Some phenomena, especially in complex and abstract domains like the nature of consciousness, the origin of the universe, or certain aspects of quantum mechanics, may defy complete and intuitive understanding. The pursuit of knowledge often reveals the vastness of what we don't know, leading to a sense of awe and humility. Consciousness and physical laws are different expressions or manifestations of a deeper, underlying reality that isn't limited to understanding, logic, and cant be broken down further. Deeper you brake it down, weirder and logic defying behavior and phenomena you will observe.
Scientists like to forget about consciousness… But consciousness never forgets about them…Uh…Maybe… or is it like that cell phone in your hand… it doesn’t create Wi-Fi.
The part about the observer effecting the wave function has kept me up at night before. Throught the process of evolution, animal brains have the ability to affect the quantum world - at least able to affect the (local?) calculations of the layer below the atom. At most it means that the universe can be forced by sentient beings to create particle matter, rather than stay in its preffered wave state. I guess imagine if you tried to swim in the ocean, but any part of the water you look at turns to ice. Keeping you from being to examine the depths.
Well in case it helps you to sleep better that idea is just a philosophical interpretation. It is not what Quantum Mechanics says. Contrary to popular believe no formulation of QM contains the word "consciousness" or even "observer" on it. What QM defines is only the concept of "measurement" (just search about "the measurement problem.."), but "measurement" not as a conscious action but defined as "an orthogonal transformation between two quantum systems". Everything else comes from the imagination of journalists and philosophers, but it is not science and there is zero experimental evidence to support those ideas. Good night.
@@javiej I agree that the truth may not be as fun as we are all thinking. But it does pose a question about measurement - until it is proven that a measurement can be made by a non-sentient measure...rer (I.E can a rock collapse a wave function?)
@@specialbeamcharlie7250 Yes in principle it can. In QM if a rock is in the path of a wave and collides with it then this event counts as a "measurement". As long as the information about the collision event is available nobody needs to look at it to collapse the wave function. But logically that only happens if there is a "collapse" in the first place, as in some QM interpretation (Pilot Waves, Many Worlds,...) there is no collapse at all. But in any case please note that "QM interpretations" are ideas that you chose to "believe", they are not part of the QM theory.
Are we at the stage when we find out that the beautiful music coming out of the radio set isn’t in fact a tiny orchestra within the set but rather something far greater the set ,beyond our imagination and understanding.
Many people are so convinced that consciousness evolved or emerged from matter - maybe, maybe not...we do not know. But how can some people be so sure it emerged from matter when there is not even a single idea, not a single theory, not even a hypothesis, about how consciousness could possibly arise from matter ? I guess they are so sure because they can not imagine anything else...but that is perhaps just a failure of their imaginations.
It's really the only thing you can be certain of. The entire world could be an illusion, but you are certain that you're consciously experiencing something because it's really as simple as the "I think therefore I am" kind of thing. The problem is you can't prove consciousness in anyone other than yourself.
In the quantum realm, the uncertainty principle introduces inherent unpredictability, leaving a void or unknown state until observation. The transition from this initial uncertainty to a definite state, observed after measurement, can be seen as moving from a singularity to a form of duality. Before measurement, the quantum system exists in a superposition of potential states, exhibiting both wave-like and particle-like characteristics. The emergent entity role comes into play when interactions among these particles lead to higher-level properties or behaviors, marking the system's evolution from a simpler, more uniform state to a more complex, emergent state with coexisting and contrasting features.
I liked your comment…. 👍🏻But Before measurement the quantum system doesn’t exhibit wave AND particle characteristics. It’s wave-like until it collapses then becomes a particle. But I know what you are saying. Generally. You’re on the right path, same road I traveled a few years back. All particles emerge/collapse from their respective quantum fields. They form atoms-molecules-then larger groups of matter. Things emerge from the quantum field. All things are reducible to the quantum field. Consciousness is explainable by physics. People who can’t understand consciousness would call it a hard problem; like a 3 year old would think 2x5 is a hard problem. But to those who know what consciousness is, knows is not a hard problem. The only thing hard about it is explaining it to people unable or unwilling to grasp it. C = memory x sensory experience
@@dr_shrinker 'The self' is an abstract entity yet it is the self that is conscious. Physics is entirely unsuited to exploring the existential nature of those kinds of abstract notions. Biochemistry comes closer but it also suffers an explanatory chasm between neural activity and thought. As far as I know there is no science of the abstract though I wouldn't be surprised to learn that linguistics is it.
More and more physicists and other leading scientific thinkers seem to be endorsing the idea of some kind of "metaphysical" mechanisms, however tenuously, mostly linked to the ideas of Quantum Theory.
For me this is very heartening.
Like who?
@@brucesmith1544
Roger Penrose for one. have you not been watching the other videos?
It is at least encouraging. We are approaching the limits of physics, and I fear it has become so institutionalized that further enlightenment beyond physics will be bogged down in protective doctrine.
@@MYOB990 a few...thanks
@@MYOB990 Yes. And Penrose asserts that consciouness is not algorithmic. I guess that it is a statement that can only be disproved, rather than proved.
We need honest physicists like this guest. He tells it as he sees it. Those who try to keep science in the shackle of absolute physicalism are doing a great disservice to the field of science and humanity at large.
The problem is that whenever you accidentally drive on to the shoulder of pseudoscience or science that can't be falsified, you get a whole bunch of Christian god of the gaps nonsense. And it is creeping into the school at least in America.
@@markb3786 Hmmmm, which one is the "Christian god of the gap nonsense"?
@@markb3786 *"The problem is that whenever you accidentally drive on to the shoulder of pseudoscience or science that can't be falsified, you get a whole bunch of Christian god of the gaps nonsense."*
... So, some other ideology you don't subscribe to is *preventing you* from exploring other possibilities regarding our existence? And why? Because it may lean toward theism? That's like choosing to not eat pancakes because it reminds you of "Flat Earth Theory."
The core of science in experimentation, observability and repeatability. The problem with dealing with consciousness is that it's not observable. You can never really be sure if others are conscious in same way as you are. In many ways, it can be shown that different people process things differently, like some with aphantasia are unable to picture things in their mind. Is this a sign of less (or even no consciousness). Is a dog conscious? Maybe you are the only actually conscious person and everyone else is just faking it? You never really know and science can't really help you prove it, because it doesn't even have the basest building blocks of consciousness.
Ultimately the only way science can analyze consciousness is to try to tie it to some materialist lens, like interactions between electrons or something, but at that point it could just be missing the entire point of what consciousness is in a desperate effort to fit it into a measurable physicalist box. Of course if it's not a physical thing, then it becomes essentially impossible to measure.
Personally I think consciousness is just beyond science right now, we should focus on trying to create life from unlife, as that will tell us the most. If we are unable to do it, then it may hint at there being something special about the state of life beyond just the material. If we can do it, then the materialist viewpoint gains a lot more credibility that life is simply an organization of matter.
@@taragnorI agree with your concluding paragraph but I disagree with the others.
You said consciousness is not observable. I think that statement is most incorrect. If anything, consciousness is the most observable because it is an inner experience. At every awakened moment of our existence we innerly feel, experience and understand what it is to be conscious.
Secondly, that you may be the only conscious person among all others and that the others may be faking consciousness is a baseless idea and self deceptive. How can someone fake something if they are not conscious? How could humans work together as a team if only one of them is conscious? That view of consciousness doesn't make sense.
consciousness is above all awareness of the self, when a child begins to say "I", he begins to become aware of his person and then the anxiety of his finitude seizes him. he then feels desperately lost in the face of the absurdity of his own existence. then comes into play the tales and legends, the entertainment, all the crutches necessary for him to continue walking to the grave.
There is chocolate and getting laid in compensation.
ponder the fact of existence rather than non existence and you will find love, joy and glory
Ok, I'll bite. With all those negatives, why become aware of self in the first place? Evolutionarily speaking, we have developed instincts that preclude us from participating in our certain demise. Inherent wariness of heights, loud noises, etc. Why would 'awareness of self' be the exception? So great of an exception that simultaneous to that realization, (which has no basis in reality anyway) the concept and efforts to abate the concept developed universally. Could it be that 'self' is an inherent condition and we merely react to it and have evolved coping methods just as we have other environmental conditions over which we have no control? After all, other creatures have evolved automatic defenses against demise. Sense of self is not only not required, but also from a pristine perspective detrimental.
@@johnswoodgadgets9819
Imagine civilization to be humanity's phenotypic carapace that co-evolved to protect us from nature red in tooth and claw.
Easy to see that the complexities of multi million member civilizations requires us to be conscious in the way we are.
Hard to imagine any civilization co-evolving with any organism that is simply reactive and/or instinct driven.
See Julian Jaynes' great book,
"The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind" for the theory on which these thoughts are based.
I think that you could be a good person to know
This is superb. As a research scientist and a deeply spiritual person this aligns with my thoughts so well.
Please do more with Bernard Marr
Agreed. I kept saying YES to myself over and over as the questions continued. Awesome convo
🙏
Sounds good 😊. If you are not already familiar with Advaita or Nonduality, you may find it interesting to know more.
My or yours, quantumphysically speaking?@Pardis-og3tb
What do you think of my comment above? John 3:16
Bernard Carr is absolutely wonderful! Such a great scientist and a wonderful human being! ❤
''It is clear consciousness did emerge.'' Only if you think it emerged with brains which is'nt establish. Bergson made the point that digestion existed much prior to the evolution of specialised digestive organs and so in the same manner the function of consciousness may preceded the emergence of brain which are concentrated nervous systems. Many in fact argued that consciousness is central to all lifes and some argued that organic life is'nt the only forms of life and that the Universe is alive and conscious and in that case consciousness of the Universe in its most primitive form would exist and everything would emerge from it and not the other way around.
When one is conscious, one is conscious OF some thing.
When one is not conscious OF any thing, one is not conscious.
Consciousness is not a something.
Consciousness is just the label for the being conscious process.
'One' is an instance of the being conscious process but
only while it's running.
@@REDPUMPERNICKEL In meditation one often experience brief moment of burst of consciousness when one is conscious of nothing. So it is not true that there is always an object of attention, or that one is always conscious of something. So this common place mantra is just false.
@@louisbrassard9565 When one is conscious of nothing,
one is not conscious of anything.
When one is not conscious of anything,
one is not conscious and
one is not existent.
The reason one is able to porpoise in and out of existence is because
one is an instance of the self-being-conscious-process which supervenes on one's continuously persistent physical living bodily substrate.
When the self-being-conscious-process is running, the self exists and is conscious.
But change the way the process runs,
even a little in critical places,
and it is no longer a self-being-conscious-process and one is non existent and not conscious.
Thoughts have two aspects.
One is the abstract aspect, what a thought represents.
The other is the physical process that maintains the representation in coded form.
This is analogous to how the two dimensional surface of a painting
represents a pipe
whereas a pipe in actuality is made of briar, exists in three dimensions and sometimes contains burning tobacco.
It is apparent that our representation/thoughts are physically maintained by neural discharge timing patterns and that the thinking process is mediated by the synapses that connect and allow thoughts to intermodulate.
The self-being-conscious-process is a very, very, very complex thought that is constantly being modulated by other thoughts. Unconscious is the result of other thoughts ceasing to modulate the self-thought.
Of course I'm speaking theoretically but only because our technology is not yet able to keep track and analyze the simultaneous timing patterns of the 85 to 100 billion neurons in a human brain.
The most likely and simplest answer is usually correct. That is it's emergent property of evolution of life as it makes survival much more likely. At what stage this happened for life on Earth, nobody knows. But most likely it was emergent at some point via evolution and progress of life. Life has to go through many struggles and wipe outs on the planet and life always goes towards anything that increases it's survival, so consciousness would have emerged at some point as a way for life to have higher survival rates. Seems pretty logical and simple to me.
@@SamWitney Whatever is Alive Might be Conscious. If it is the case then it did not evolve at some hypothetical point in the history of Life but was there from the get go. It is likely the case that consciousness is an absolute necessity for survival but it is surely not related to a specific function of life since there is no reason for any given function to be conscious in order to be implemented. Did feeding emerged at some late stage of life? No it is necessary from the get go. As you see not everything evolve at a late stage. The fundamentals of life are there from the get go and consciousness is intrinsic to Life.
Evidence comes from latin 'obvious to the eye or mind'. So, no evidence without 'eye or mind'. Since science is suposed to be based (or relies) on evidence, we have to conclude that there can't be physical reality without 'eye or mind'. Just try to imagine any physical reality or universe without evidence ('eye or mind', consciousness, awareness...); it's entirely impossible, nonsensical...
Some prominent theories include the Global Workspace Theory, the Integrated Information Theory, the Attention Schema Theory, and the Emotional Signal Theory. It is likely that consciousness is a complex phenomenon that cannot be explained by any single theory, and it may be the result of a combination of factors, including the brain's structure and function, our evolutionary history, and our environment. While the mystery of consciousness remains unsolved, the study of this fascinating phenomenon continues to advance, and we may one day be able to unlock the secrets of consciousness and understand its true nature.
That is an excellent summary , with which I agree. As Neil de Grasse Tyson once said; the fact that so many books have been written about consciousness shows that is fundamentally complex and we are nowhere near understanding it.
@@willasacco9898
I understand it and I'm not alone but many have trouble getting to the epiphany.
Getting there requires a rich understanding of the nature of abstraction and
of the relationship between abstraction and neural activity.
Julian Jaynes' great book,
"The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind"
is extremely helpful to the seeker
(as is an introduction to neural function and
"Gödel, Escher, Bach" doesn't hurt).
Just because consciousness is mysterious and quantum is mysterious that doesn't mean you can use one to explain the other
And collapsing probability waves happen only in the abstract realm.
And who would be surprised to learn that
the abstract is the only realm in which consciousness can flit about.
Stars that are much more simplier than the human brain and consciousness need the quantum mechanics quantum tunneling effect to exist and to be explained, why the brain the most complex object that we "know" in the universe (excluding the universe) can't have quantum effects?
Probably we can't explain today or never will but probably has some quantum effects in the brain, using the complexity logic
@@_boraprogramar
Have you considered the possibility that the brain's approximately 90,000,000,000 neurons interconnected by their 1,720,000,000,000,000 analog multi input logic gates called synapses might alone be enough to constitute the being conscious process?
@@REDPUMPERNICKEL I Don´t think it is enough, if it was the way you say we should already have some machine that simulate consciussness, probably we never will
Thanks!
Excellent! Glad to hear of open-minded researchers like Bernard Carr! Ancient India’s Samkhya viewpoint is that Consciousness with a big “C” and Ether with a big “E” are the fundamental structure of the Cosmos whether in ‘disturbance’-mode or in ‘quiescence-mode'. A Time/Space in the Universe when/where Purusha-Prakriti are absent is inconceivable. As inconceivable as emergence of the 12 fundamental numbers. Neither Consciousness nor Ether emerge. We in our complexity emerge into and out of them, not the other way around. The great mystery is the ‘something third’ -hence Sam.khya-the force in-between Siva & Shakti.
From the Preface of my book, I quote -"we live using feeble light reflected in the moon of our thinking mind, oblivious to the sun’s radiance reflected in our heart-mind. The light of the thinking mind is but the reflection of a reflection in a corridor of mirrors.”
No 1 will read such long chatgpty answer
Well, I read it, cocoarecords notwithstanding. I am old school and do not believe everything can be grasped in 280 characters. If it could be it would have been. Moving on: This is as close to the concept I have come to believe as anything I have found in the historical record. I have come to believe, based on research and anecdotal evidence, that which we call self is an isolated portion of a universal environment of consciousness. I believe one function of the brain is to communicate with that conscious environment within the limits of that isolation. I have come to define consciousness as awareness of space time demonstrated by deliberate arbitrary action based on that awareness. That is why the mouse tries to eat the cheese, rather than try to eat the trap itself, but some mice do indeed chew on your socks, if they can get into the dresser. Lowly as they seem, mice too are conscious entities taking deliberate arbitrary action. That is among the things I have seen in the corridor of mirrors.
@@johnswoodgadgets9819 "That is why the mouse tries to eat the cheese, rather than try to eat the trap itself, but some mice do indeed chew on your socks, if they can get into the dresser." - Ross Perot, 1992
@@brucesmith1544 Hehe!
Please listen to this man again. He isn't "open minded" at all, simply filling in blanks he doesn't understand and sounding very close to mythological religious ideology.
Any aim to extend our knowledge with mainstream scientific paradigm (which is information), will in my opinion reveal that the knowledge of the microcosmos as well as the macro cosmos are fractal in nature.
I think most scientists would rather see it as reaching for the asymptote of information, whilst possibly, there's no asymptote to start with. I think that is a result of the limitation of our senses and intelligent capacity.
We might see ourselves as intelligent, but I think we are not capable of even grasping the very fundament of it all.
I find Carr's view on things (and he's not alone) the most logical and consistent.
Awareness is known by awareness alone.
I find it very strange how we talk about consciousness without having a definition of consciousness.
Step 1: What is consciousness?
the thing in your head , your thinking
@@FirstnameLastname-ps4cu I do not mean consciousness is just from the brain. sorry. but you are so angry to me !
@@duongkstn Passion my good man, anger is for young people.
The feeling of how it's like to be
We don’t have an equation for it either. Consciousness is the ability to reflect on your thoughts, actions and behaviour that allows you to then alter your thoughts, actions and behaviour so that we don’t suffer the same mistakes over and over again of unconscious actions and behaviour, self awareness.
Natural selection of the mind.
Fabulous interview. A brave man reporting what he sees.
I love you brother.
*_“… Everyone who is seriously engaged in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that the laws of nature manifest the existence of a spirit vastly superior to that of men, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.”_* Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955), founder of modern physics (Theory of Relativity inter alia) and 1921 Nobel prize winner
Last years nobel prize in physics proved einstein determinism was always dumbass.. it proved "spooky action at a distance" is a thingamabob,
You only think you're a 'real boy' because your mom told you so.
You ASS/U/ME youre' real
I don't know why (cosmic) consciousness emerged. It's like asking "why did God emerge" or "why did Self emerge". Maybe the better question to ask is what is the underlying reason for the big bang or fluctuations in the early universe, or, why is there biodiversity? Why does the sea create waves? I am Catholic so for me it's simple. It's all about love baby. It is not good for the Man to be alone (Gen 2:18). Thank you. Bless you. Grateful you are here. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. ❤
Why ask why consciousness emerged, when there is noone to tell _what_ it is?
How can you see why - when you cannot see what?
If somebody really knows what it is, please tell!
its a space in which a given object is being aware of its existence. Its existence can not be proven, as its a no objectified internal experienced , still its the place where the whole human mental activity takes place. Without self-awareness, no science, no language, no logic, no mathematics
It gave animals an advantage. There is nothing magical about it, no matter how much you wish otherwise. It’s not complicated at all.
Noob
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 “it’s not complicated at all”… Where’s your Nobel prize for solving the hard problem MJ1? I love seeing comments from absolute fools like you. What is the advantage of having qualia? Why does a reaction to stimuli require awareness? You’re basically acting like someone pre-theory of gravity saying that things fall down and there’s nothing magical about it, things just fall down because they do… Great explanation!!! Turns out there was a lot more to it, was it magic? You could portray it as that though, the force of some magical unheard of power and the force of gravity, what is the difference? Lmao not complicated at all, good one.
explain how it gave animals an advantage?
So the human brain is not complicated?
Dunning Kruger effect delux.
Consciousness results from electro-chemical synaptic excitations that utilize visual and aural memory. It's as though a loop tape is playing and that tape is constantly updating, both with our actual "real time" audio-visual experience, and the plethora of memories that are fed in and out of the consciousness loop. It is astounding how many snippets of memory can come and go as we experience consciousness. I put "real time" in quotes, because even that is necessarily a read of memory. There is no actual "current time" because each 1/infinity moment slips instantly into the past, and that immediate past appears to us as current.
Consciousness provides creatures a vital set of inputs necessary for survival. The level of complexity of consciousness is relative to a creature's brain mass to body ratio. The human brain weighs about 3 pounds, and a very small amount of that mass processes consciousness.
An ant's brain, proportional to her weight, is about 7 times the size of the human brain. A young ant learns at an astounding rate by tagging along with an older ant. An ant doesn't bother with spending 1/4 to 1/3 of her life being "educated" because she learns the essentials of life within a few minutes and then she devotes her life to the well-being of the colony. Her exponential rate of learning is accomplished by way of her proportionally enormous brain size. And her level of consciousness provides her with internal affirmation regarding the importance of her contribution. Her work is her play, and she sees her fellow worker/players enjoying the highly cooperative fulfillment to the well-being of the colony.
Your first paragraph is exactly correct, and reflects the idea of consciousness as "multiple drafts" of a story that keeps changing slightly, and briefly examined before continuous subsequent drafts.
On the ant example I would suggest what is missing is the component of an examination of a perspective on the ant's own activities. I might guess second level happens with larger and more complex brains only.
The Universe is not a random coincedence. The Universe has a story which is unfolding as time passes. Its a long story. Existence was the first episode. Life was second. And consciousness like the one we humans possess now is the next chapter unfolding itself. May be Robotics and AI will help us explore the next chapter to expand our limits.
The 'Story' of the Universe is the Higher Consciousness itself. It 'Knows' what its doing. Its following a plan. Just like a seed has all the information about how it will turn into a plant, and eventually a gigantic fruit bearing tree. The same way the Universe already had all the ingredients that were needed for this story to unfold. It cant just go back and say ohh I need one new element to make certain progress happen. It cant. It was all predecided, pre written.
But are there any possiblities for miracles? Ofcourse :)
Can the things go wrong? Ofcourse :)
I mean even a plant has the risk of drying out, or getting cut or may be develop imperfections due to lack of nutrition. Or it can get the best resources out there and grow up to be the best version of itself. Thats just Fate. Backed by Faith :)
Who wrote this story?
I am quite sure there is a super human like God who wrote this story. But then ofcourse 'someone' created God and they were less human and more nature. And 'something' created those someone and so on. It all came from Nothing. We just have to accept that.
I believe the biggest miracle is Existence itself. There could have been just nothing. Emptiness. Nonexistence.
But there is Existence! Miraculously evolving into something so complex, unique, beautiful as well as scary at the same time.
I am Awe struck. Thats Awe-some at times, Awe-ful at others. These are two sides of the same coin. We have to appreciate and accept both of them.
I just wish science zooms out and develops the ability to look at the big picture. It carries the same ego that religion once carried. Greed for for fame, recongition, superiority, power. Those are just addictions. Happens automatically over a period of time. We need to shake it off. That voice inside us knows whats right. We need courage and strength to listen to it again and change our ways. Doesnt happen overnight though.
I do wish Science finds the simplest explainations of our existence at the highest level.. which cant be proved in labs ofcourse.. just common sense and observation are enough. And then use those understandings to fill in the gaps backed by faith and sense of service towards humanity.
Thats when answers come.
Thats when they always come.
Very interesting and profound.
Is the ant more conscious than human.?? By virtue of its proportionately larger brain.
@@kunalnichani1 Interesting idea. I have to read it again and again because language is a poor tool to express truth. I have to be honest without imposing my prejudices before attempting to look into your ideas.
@@Ofinfinitejest Your opinion regarding the Ant example added a different and interesting perspective.
Isn't consciousness what is already existing and therefore no need for 'emerging' as such ?
No
Yes
Somewhere in between
Maybe
Emergence is a non-sense word, it's Just a gap filler Word for "I don"t know how that happend".
People have been projecting consciousness onto the universe since there have been conscious people and while we have countless examples of the misattribution of consciousness, so far no one has been able to demonstrate that this is the case.
Ironically, that projection is an indicator of the small"c".
Would that science will someday get to a way to experiment. Won't happen for a long time imho, so for now it's relegated to an interesting topic of discussion.
What do yo mean "no one has been able to demonstrate"? you simply overlook Buddhism, Zen, and all mystics who suggest YOU take up the appropriate PRACTICES or tools of investigation to have these "ideas" Bernard Carr is talking about be clearly demonstrated. You have provided a pure materialistic conception that you project onto our reality -- I'm not buying it at all for you leave out too much counter-evidence.
We always need to find bigger, noble, religious spiritual notions. Why can't we just admit there is a physical object (the brain) generating through whatever complex mechanism a conscious experience? No no, there has to be some universal foundamental consciousness (a.k.a. God) that is "observing" itself. Whatever that means 🤷🏻♂️
Underrated comment ❤
I think that those who have studied the brain for decades believe that there is something beyond neurons, they must be somewhat right
I just think as humans we are too dumb to make full sense of the universe, it might be pure accidental or beyond even consciousness, something we cant understand.. Consciousness is something we know so we think of it as superior
Excellent discussion. Would love to see CTT conversations with Federico Faggin and Edward Frenkel.
Even in within a classical interpretation of the Universe, consciousness is inevitable due to the vastness of the forum.
Comment improved imho by adding
'and that the natures of its constituent particles enable them to dance together as they do'.
(Size alone being only distantly relevant to the manifestation of the conscious).
@@REDPUMPERNICKEL - Certainly an improvent, in a very valid sense. I do however, attribute importance to the vastness (a redundant term for an infinitely large [in my estimation] stage) of the Tapestry, because its ‘boundlessness’ enables, nay, FORCES, everything, E V E R Y T H I N G, to occur, an infinite number of times.
@@yessroman
There are some thoughts I cannot think to my satisfaction.
Infinite is one and absolute nothing is another.
I suspect this is because evolution made representation the fundamental nature of all thoughts so that the unrepresentable become unthinkable except at arms length via labels.
Exploring the Nature of Consciousness and Medical Anesthesia
I've been pondering the concept of consciousness lately, especially in the context of medical procedures where doctors use medications to induce partial or complete unconsciousness. It makes me wonder - did we create medications that truly affect consciousness, or are we more accurately dulling the senses while incorrectly using the term "consciousness"?
Consider this analogy with the small sea of consciousness during medical operations. It raises questions about how we understand and manipulate consciousness. But then, how about the vast sea of consciousness in the Earth, universe, quantum world, etc.? Do we have any "methods" or "medications" to dull or alter the consciousness of nature on a grand scale? It's intriguing to think about.
What are your thoughts on this? Can the consciousness of nature be influenced or altered, or is it beyond our grasp? Looking forward to hearing your perspectives!
My perspective -
Obviously if conciousness is fundamental in nature then it cannot be influenced or altered, if it has originated at a later point of time then maybe it can be altered, because what gets created can be destroyed as well.
Cheers!
Ponder long and hard the fact that
sometimes you are conscious and sometimes you are not.
Have you noticed that your self ceases to exist when you are not conscious?
Should you one day fall into a permanent deep and dreamless slumber,
how would you be able to recognize the onset of your death?
Does knowing that you are sometimes not conscious
shade your estimation that being conscious might be 'fundamental'?
Once again, being-conscious is not equated with having Consciousness. The anesthesia induced unconscious state does not wipe out self-consciousness.
@@avi2125
I AM Conscious.
Consciousness is not a 'something' that I have.
You ARE Conscious.
Consciousness is not a 'something' that you have.
We ARE Conscious.
Consciousness is not a 'something' that we have.
There is no such 'thing' as 'consciousness'.
Being conscious is a process of the body so that
when the body ceases to run the process, being conscious ceases.
If an anesthetic interferes with the process sufficiently then one will not be conscious.
If LSD interferes with the process then experience is altered.
Hey @@REDPUMPERNICKEL
Thank you for sharing your opinion.
But still deep in thought about consciousness, when we're under anesthesia - not consciously aware, yet our subconscious memory and the fundamental functions keeps going like breathing, heart pumping blood, etc. It's like being in a state of induced sub-consciousness.
Drawing a parallel with fundamentals: water flows due to gravity, but remove gravity, and water molecules/particles form a sphere.
The concept of consciousness in itself can have different understanding from different perspectives, shaped by diverse experiences.
My perspective:
Consciousness seems like an "experience" difficult to be expressed in words, involving intricate processes like perception (input-output or action-reaction). Just as water molecules/particles respond to gravity, our organs which are collections of different conscious molecules/particles, form a conscious body with a brain, these bodies are collectively part of a conscious group of people, which are part of the conscious beings, and conscious surrounding/nature/universe - acting harmoniously.
Self-consciousness, the "Me," arises-an experience exploring the fundamentals but bound by nature's rules.
It seems like pixels on a TV creating a moving picture-an illusion mimicking reality. Similarly, the "Me" is an intangible concept, linked to neurons and reactions governed by fundamental rules. Love, emotions, understanding of consciousness, all tied to that intangible "Me."
Would love to hear your thoughts on this analogy and your perceptions of the interplay between consciousness, "Me" and the fundamental aspects of existence.
Cheers.
Hello @@MrSudesh1992
I'll write my corresponding understandings under quotes of what you wrote...
"when we're under anesthesia - not consciously aware, yet our subconscious memory and the fundamental functions keeps going like breathing, heart pumping blood, etc. It's like being in a state of induced sub-consciousness"
Even while an anesthetic prevents one's self-being-conscious-process from running or
while the process is naturally halted as in a deep and dreamless slumber,
the trillions of other bodily process instances persist,
including the neural processes responsible for maintaining one's memories.
"Consciousness seems like an "experience" difficult to be expressed in words, involving intricate processes like perception (input-output or action-reaction). Just as water molecules/particles respond to gravity, our organs which are collections of different conscious molecules/particles, form a conscious body with a brain, these bodies are collectively part of a conscious group of people, which are part of the conscious beings, and conscious surrounding/nature/universe - acting harmoniously".
Molecules and atoms are mechanically and chemically reactive and their interactions are understood and described quite well by physicists, chemists, biologists, etc.
Molecules and atoms exist and react but 'reactivity' is *not* what we mean by 'conscious'.
Billiard balls react to impacts but who would insist they are conscious of such events?
Only those who cannot distinguish between reactivity and conscious.
Nevertheless, molecules and atoms, although individually not conscious,
do constitute a level in the hierarchy of necessary substrates which
underlie the self-being-conscious-process (in a way perfectly analogous to the way
matter must exist if there is to be movement).
The thoughts impressed on human apes by their co-evolved cultures
are ultimately responsible for making humans conscious in the unique way that we are.
"Self-consciousness, the "Me," arises-an experience exploring the fundamentals but bound by nature's rules.
It seems like pixels on a TV creating a moving picture-an illusion mimicking reality. Similarly, the "Me" is an intangible concept, linked to neurons and reactions governed by fundamental rules. Love, emotions, understanding of consciousness, all tied to that intangible "Me.""
A self is conscious of thoughts only.
These thoughts represent things like trees and peaches.
A pain represents something wrong with the system.
A pleasure represents something that induces repetition.
The self is a complex thought or more accurately, a thought complex.
The self thought is unique in that it represents its self,
all other thoughts representing something that is not the self.
The self thought is the central feature of the self-being-conscious-process.
Other thoughts modulating the self thought is to what the word conscious is referring.
Of course what's going on is extremely complex and indeed,
words struggle to do the process justice.
Pretty wild to think that we will prob create fully sentient artificial intelligence before understanding our own consciousness. And it may very well be the AI we create that then explains to us what the hell is goin on between our ears.
It is fascinating to hear physicists explaining the work of God.
...and dismissing it flippantly as delusion
What if I say the work of Karma? then 'Darmic vs Abrahamic' debate would possibly start.
Animals are self-aware, they possess the Qualia, we know very well that : Animals have pain and pleasure and desires and fears !
A number of them can recognise their reflection in a mirror, and some of them can even have a notion of what another animal have in mind, thanks to the Theory of Mind, which is a region of the brain of certain mammals.
Our idea of consciousness is just us applying our "Theory of Mind" onto ourselves. That creates a two facing mirrors situation with you in between as you must have experienced at some point between two real mirrors. At that point - when you reflect upon yourselves - your "Theory of Mind" holds a transitory and shifty "Theory of Self", until we pass on to something more practical, and our consciousness fades to a minimum, which is most of the time, until it is aroused again.
That's all there is to it. Thought I reckon it matters a lot to ourselves : All the issues come from our self-importance, and our greed for the Mirific Free-Will and a Grand Consciousness !
If you want to say everything is conscious, then you are actually referring to cognition, which is the the object of studies that brought the notions of 'properties' or 'categories' in metaphysics. Particles , or waves function, have properties that, beyond our possible observations, that define 'its' cognition of the world/environment where it can only react in a certain number of ways. Extend that using emergence and there is your recipe.
No deep mystery !
Qualia = nonsense.
Maybe I’m an idiot, but I don’t understand the big mystery with consciousness. Everything that has a brain is conscious to some degree, the more a brain ‘thinks’ the more conscious it is. My dog is conscious that if he does a certain thing he will get a treat in return. He can’t contemplate the Big Bang because he has no language to do so. I have learned a very complex language so I can contemplate all manner of things by having a conversation in my own head about it.
For me consciousness is just a brain thinking to greater or lesser degrees
It's not the thinking, it's the experiencing. I thought the same, consciousness is not a big deal, until I watched a lot of Closer to Truth videos over the past few years.
When talking with friends, I boil it down to this. Look at something colored red, where does that red in itself exist, where does that experience of the red color come from? It's just a certain wavelength of light, but the frequency doesn't create red itself. You, by observing red in the first person point of view and seeing the bright color, is consciousness. And there is no explanation for where that experience comes from or is created.
To use your example, a computer can learn a very complex language. But you contemplate all manner of things by having a 'conversation in your head'. You are observing a train of thought, a voice, or images. Where does the experience of sound come from? The images you can imagine? That's the consciousness part.
@@ChrisClark0you explained it so well, very nice
@@ChrisClark0
If I experience the colour red, is it not just my eyes seeing the light wave and then my brain receiving the information and processing it? If I had my eyes closed I wouldn’t experience the colour red but if I open them I do.
A computer isn’t biological and isn’t a brain connected to an entire biological structure with senses so I think real consciousness in AI will be hard to achieve. It seems to me that the brain is the real mystery, even the origins of multi cellular life and consciousness comes along with it.
Again I am sorry, I know there’s something I’m missing that I’m not wrapping my head around.
@@gallinho7268you are close. How does a city’s roads influence the behavior of the city? New York is vastly different than Reno. I could argue a person is a product of their environment (roads) and a city’s roads are the product of the people. It works both ways.
You know what red is because you have wired your brain to decipher red since birth. When you experienced your first event, your brain started laying the roads. Over time, some roads were reinforced : major moral compass, beliefs, and so on. At times, some roads were rerouted and some are destroyed completely: Abandoned beliefs and forgotten memories. It’s not the individual brick pavers of small paths and neighborhood back streets, it’s the pattern of the massive highway which determine your self awareness. It’s the Shape of your brain that counts where self awareness is concerned.
Neurological pathways comprise memories as certain external stimulation is processed thru the major highways. Reinformemt - The more you experience (or visualize)a thing, the stronger the road’s foundation becomes. This is called “plasticity.” A familiar face is processed through neuro paths that were laid out by past exposures to the person from your past. The larger the path, the more the recollection.-ex. Lady Gaga triggers more memories than Billie joe Jim Bob.
I could break it all down for you, but only if you’re interested. Otherwise, I’ll just leave it here. Consciousness is easy to explain in physical terms. I have it figured out to about 99 percent. I’m looking for someone to challenge me, but so far all I get is the same dualist gibberish.
The mind is an emergent process of the physical world. Reflex, inspiration, influence, motivation, and sub conscious are all words that describe the same thing. Physicality. As such, the mind is reducible to physical properties. Self awareness (consciousness) is the sum of present experience, plus all experience since birth and the memories of those experiences.
Experience. Physical processes effect on the CNS. -red light hits specific cones in your retina. Close your eyes and try imagining red. The best you get is a memory of something red. You’re routing electrical impulse down “red street.”
Memory. Default states of neuro pathways ..the way your brain was sculpted by physicality. Your physical brain is a sculpture.
- if red is your favorite color, you must have spent a lot more time developing “red street.” Those electrical impulses which comprise red, mixed with some other memory (cross street) you made with your first love. The association/context might make your brain feel better as electrical impulses trigger endorphins. Everyone like those, because they feel good and make you happy. Red reminds you of Jessica in a hot Red bikini. Meanwhile, sage green reminds you of stale celery a bully made you eat.
Dualists argue that self awareness emerges from the brain and is a different thing than the brain. While emergence may be half true, it does not mean consciousness is separate and fundamental. Consciousness is an extension to the physical brain. It’s like music that comes from grooves of a record. The music is physical--sound wave vibrations in air. Music is reducible by removing the air, speakers, wires, magnets and cartridge, needle, grooves, and record. Remove any one, and the music’s over.
But the brain is also a transducer in that energy comes in, gets processed and converted, then sent to out in the form of physical action. Your brain mirrors the physical world. - running across a basketball court versus sauntering down a frozen driveway. OR speaking in a quiet baby nursery or shouting at a wrestling match. You actions mirror the world you experience. Even if you decided to yell in a nursery, you would have a reason. The reason could be obvious like “fire!” Or subtle like, “oh, I didn’t realize I was yelling. I had my head phones on.”
I could go on all day. I’m writing a book actually. But the bottom line is this….
All things in the universe are reducible to the quantum fields.
Like and I’ll fill you in with more details. I have many “common sense” principles I could share. I hope it helps. Thanks for reading this far!
It's just all speculation this man is arguing, there's no proof to any of this. The universe doesn't need consciousness or is designed to produce it. It just emerged, consciousness isn't fundamental
It never emerged!! It was always there..and will always be there.. In fact, there's nothing... absolutely nothing, but the Consciousness! Thus all Creation is a manifestation or interplay of this Consciousness.
Consciousness evolved as a mechanism to enable life forms to have ideas. An organism that can have ideas contributed greatly to the survival the various species. Consciousness is therefore a conduit for ideas in the first instance. Consciousness is not necessary for us to breathe or the heart to beat, it is an attribute for survival. Why is that so hard to see?
What attribute? Ideas are arbitrary, untried in the 'idea state', and arguably are more of a detriment to survival than they are an attribute. What exactly is the evolutionary advantage in having ideas? The most successful organisms have no ideas at all.
Nonsense. The epiphenomenon of consciousness could not exist at all and we could have still evolved with all the complex brain processing we have now to lead to complex behaviour that could allow our genomes to thrive and reproduce.
I just stumbled onto Bernard watching him in discussion with Sadhguru. What an open minded, thoughtful and genuine seeker of knowledge he is.
took the same path, shared your view
Sadhguru the fraud?
Open mind is easy, speculation is easy. Actually, arriving at the reality of it is hard.
Sad guru is a con.
I agree that speculation is easy. But open mind is easy? I think people THINK that they are open minded but don't realise how many strong beliefs they actually hold about everything. For example the belief in what happens after death. The religious might believe in heaven, the atheist might believe there is nothing. But do they realise that both of these are beliefs, not reality? Neither one has actually experienced after death to know what the reality is.
@@lillili77….you seem to think death is real, as if birth happened in the first place
Consciousness evolved as a predictive mechanism, an extension of cognition and memory that enables populations to anticipate future events according to what has happened in the past, thus promoting survival and reproductive success. We humans have developed such complex consciousness that we sometimes become entangled in our own fantasies.
I think I agree with you but not sure. Dennett would agree also. it aligns with my own (throat clear) simple theory - consciousness is "story"
That doesn’t answer the question.
Did consciousness evolve out of matter or matter evolved to certain state where it could channel consciousness that is always there.
If only it were that simple !
@@adisvara2900Is there a consciousness particle? Consciousness feels like the playful child peeking behind the curtain, amazed with what it sees.
Consciousness is a feedback system of 5 senses. Comparing new sense to older senses is the mechanism of evolution. One can say consciousness is 6th sense. Newborn does not have consciousness, however as baby grows with data collected through 5 senses and feedback comparison, consciousness emerges. Entire perception of the universe that we humans have is evolution of energy in each of us.
Excellent video. There is an ancient Hindu text that has a specific verses dedicated to remove confusion about the word "consciousness" as it it used an a wide variety of ways. Here is a translation from the original Sanskrit.
"Not internal consciousness, not external consciousness, not in between consciousness (i.e. the state between waking and dream), not a cloud of consciousness (i.e. thoughts, ideas, etc.), not consciousness (i.e. knowledge of everything simultaneously), nor unconsciousness, beyond perception, beyond transaction, beyond grasp (formless), beyond designation, beyond thinking (i.e. beyond objectification), beyond description, the one whose essence is proof of a single Self (Atma/Consciousness), the cessation of the world (of the cycles of birth and death), tranquil, auspicious, non-dual, is considered the Fourth. That (is) the Self (i.e. Atma/Consciousness). That (Self, Atma/Consciousness) is to be known." Mandukya Upanishad, Verse 7
I'm sad to say I was only terribly confused by that passage 😕
Yes... Ekam Sat.
@@stringX90 The point is Consciousness isn't what you think it is. It is what you are. It is not an object. It is the very nature of you, the subject.
@@picksalot1 Thanks, yes, that I understand 😄✌️
@@stringX90 Glad that helped. These old verses are all meant to explained so they can be understood correctly. 😉
I found his openness refreshing. Scientists like David Chalmers have called for non-traditional theories to deal with the 'hard problem' of consciousness.
Chalmers came up with phrase “the hard problem of consciousness” and was never able to do a thing with it. Nor was anyone else. There was a period when research in this area could have flourished-if any sound, valid or even just interesting research resulted at all. It didn’t. Not from Chalmers, not from anyone else. Now if you never want to get published or a position in a Universe anywhere, tell them you’re interested in the hard problem of consciousness. Total dead end. I bet Chalmers knows it too.
A rock is consciousness because it is simultaneously elsewhere and it can sense (void of brain - memory = consciousness) that it isn't part of the mountain anymore..
A rock thinks the hard problem of consciousness is silly.
Simultaneous time accounts for all of your memories.. in all of your lifetimes.
@@longcastle4863
One cannot describe an abstract notion using only physics concepts.
Explaining 'consciousness' is only hard if one is so restricted.
Consciousness is assigned a mystical quality which it actually lacks. It occurs in living creatures because it is essential for any living creature to survive. Memory is essential to consciousness. We remember experience through our internal and external sensory perceptions, all of which are electro-chemical processes of the brain.
As we navigate through a real-time experience, we use memory of similar perceptions to process our way through that navigation. Memory is stored according to the intensity of sensory perception, and we reinforce those memories which intensifies them even more.
Maybe im missing part of your point but it seems like you maybe wanna suggest or make an argument that the brain is needed for consciousness or that consciousness is only in the brain. But it kind of seems like youre really only arguing for memory and organism consciousness needing brains or only being in brains. But that doesnt mean or logically imply that brains are needed for consciousness or that consciousness is only in the brain.
@@highvalence7649 it sounds like he’s saying consciousness is an illusion caused by our memory of things. I would disagree though because you’d still have the capacity to think.
@@highvalence7649 I think we need a definition of consciousness in order to discuss its implications. I think present time is not real in that it is 1 over infinity. Every moment immediately becomes the past. So we use memory to navigate what feels like the present, and for me, that extremely recent memory is the core of our consciousness. I see it as residing exclusively in the brain, mostly as that immediate memory, but with access to past memories as well.
If people want to see consciousness as outside the brain, I would just like to know how they define it. If the galaxy or universe has a consciousness, that would be something that merits more than the capital "C" referenced in the video. I think it needs its own word and definition apart from individual animal consciousness.
@@stellarwind1946 Our ability to think requires the processing of memory, including synthesis. Creating new ideas through thought requires imagining, which is dependent on memory of sensory input. A musician plays note combinations on an instrument and uses memory of those progressions to arrange them into something new. That ability depends on the storage of memory snippets in the brain.
My computer has memory, why would it require qualia? Why does any mental process require qualia? All I hear you saying is “it just does”. Why can’t people be philosophical zombies, a human reacts from its environment, what about a reaction requires consciousness? When AI mimics humans as to being indistinguishable would you say they are conscious or not? If yes, why? When did it happen? And if no then why does a human need to be conscious?
He claims there is evidence in physics that indicates consciousness is fundamental. And then proceeds to give some of the weakest most unconvincing evidence ever. He says, clearly consciousness emerged with biology, but… But what? He should have said, but I want there to be more so let me twist logic and science into a reason for there being more. Unconvincing.
*"He claims there is evidence in physics that indicates consciousness is fundamental. And then proceeds to give some of the weakest most unconvincing evidence ever."*
... True, wave-function collapse due to observation isn't conclusive evidence of consciousness being fundamental, but let's be fair. It's not like he extrapolated an infinite network of infinitely existing universes from which every possible scenario is met with every possible outcome all from the inability to properly predict a particle's position, ya know?
Are you a publishing company for real? @@0-by-1_Publishing_LLC
Check out Donald Hoffman
@@0-by-1_Publishing_LLCright!? 🤣 they think his reasoning is faulty but they don’t even question the many worlds interpretation for a second, arguably the most insane hypothesis ever conceived of… for which we still have zero evidence and is in principle unfalsifiable 🤣😂😂 it’s absurd
Thank you, you are absolutely right in my humble opinion. The paradigm shift you mention will force us to give up our unconscious obsession with 1st person perspective (egoic mind) or the local aspect of our consciousness, how ever you want to call it and embrace the non-local aspect of consciousness, that which we all share. Both Penrose and Goswami show in their own ways that the brain is able to function both locally (in space-time) and non-locally (outside of space-time, or instantly). The task at hand for humanity is that we have to get over ourselves (the importance of our instantiated minds) and start to "think bigger". I'm certain that nature has a built-in safety switch of some sort. If a species cannot make that evolutionary step of overcoming the erroneous identification with the local aspect of their mind, they will self destruct. Let's hope we get 100 monkeys together to turn the ship around. Fingers crosssed.
how exactly do you think consciousnes can function outside of spacetime?
If I knew, I wouldn't be sitting here, watching videos... If "spacetime is just a headset" (donald hoffman) and consciousness is a fundamental quality of the universe (bernardo kastrup) and if we de-couple consciousness from our fixed concept of it always having to be paired with an entity and/or agent, then why couldn't it?
@@autisticalchemist explain it to me in your own way, I want your opinion.
@@glens18account ruclips.net/p/PLMGkKcfLvqZIbbZxi7sYtF9bBCxfDM5SL&si=XFcsqAGZ4VkoTA64
@@glens18account ruclips.net/video/DB5i0qVe1_o/видео.html
Rather : « Why consciousness neither comes or goes”
Because consciousness is the only “thing” which is”
The only “thing” you’ll ever know because everything perception is perceived at 0 distance from consciousness included this conversation about consciousness…
❤
(4:20) *BC: **_"To me, a theory of physics which does not make any reference to our experience, our consciousness, is far from the theory of everything; it's just a theory of everything to do with fundamental physics"_* ... Which has been my argument all along and the basis for my book. Science observes manifestations of self-awareness happening within the past 300,000 years of human existence and summarily proclaims *_"That's all there is to see, folks! ... Now, let's talk 'Multiverse!"_*
Many people's core beliefs preclude them from even considering that there might be a _"bigger picture"_ in regard to a self-aware consciousness. Some don't want to out of a desire to shore up their core beliefs whereas others simply don't want to out of spite - because they think it sounds too much like God.
The _"bigger picture"_ is that a self-aware consciousness is what you end up with after a 14-billion-year-long evolution of *information.* Everything going on inside your head has been going on in lesser degrees since the beginning of Existence ...
... We just happen to exist during the highpoint of this ongoing _"evolution of data."_
Still others don’t subscribe because no one has proven duality exists. It’s unfalsifiable. We can speculate and I’m sure there are people who could theorize and argue rocks are self aware, based on some round about logic, but at the end of the discussion, no brain = no consciousness. This is a proven and testable fact. Consciousness is not fundamental if you can remove the brain, and consciousness dissolves with it; emergent or not. Physical events happen and if the brain is sculpted correctly, the electrical impulses synch in phase with the transducer and the signal is received and processed. The process happens “in the brain.” The brain has to do the heavy lifting, not some cosmological miracle or sentient quarks and bosons. Nothing fundamental spoon feeds the brain ready-made conscious experiences. The event of a thing is not the conscious event. The event of a thing is a recipe for the brain to operate. The physics of an event is information. A book is not conscious:; the words are not conscious; the information is not conscious ….the reader and their brain are.
If consciousness were external to physicality, then it wouldn’t be subjected to locality. We would experience events on the opposite side of the universe, without the lag of relativity. We would also know things we never connected with vis physical locality. Too bad, because I’d love to know what it’s like to walk on Mars while having infinite knowledge of everything.
But let’s assume you’re right. I was once a amateur practicing Tibetan Buddhist and believed heavily in duality. So this will be easy for me.
I’m assuming the theory is: There’s a dimension of universal consciousness (Buddha) and we somehow pick it up when the frequencies of the consciousness and our brain synchronize; tuning into the ‘universal consciousness.” Different conscious states are the result of the limits of physicality. Like looking out of a rainy window and trying to count leaves thru the blur.
We don’t have access to ‘all knowing truth’ because out physical brain limits the sheer vastness of universal comprehension. The universe subjugates us to the trudge of the Higgs boson and we are condensed energy from the harmonious fabric of the true universe; Manifestations based on our attachments to physicality.
Upon death, we break the physical bonds of this bound dimension to become one with the ethereal plain of universal consciousness. We enter the bardo and our journey is weighed with universal karma and accumulated karma. If we are wise, we break the cycle of death and rebirth to spend eternity in oblivion. Etc. Nirvana.
I’m assuming conscious is the only thing that is real, but our brains distort it, bending it to the physical dimensions/universe we reside in. It’s not a new theory. It’s been around since Buddhism was founded.
There’s just one problem with all that. If universal consciousness is governed by the physical/living brain, then it’s still reducible because if it weren’t, consciousness would be unaffected by physicality. Why would it not?
The phrase, "first person experience" is redundant since
"first person" means 'self' and
a self is an instance of the being-conscious-thought-process and
"experience" is the modulation of that process by other thoughts.
I.e., 'experience' contains 'first person' within its meaning.
There is not and there cannot be non-first-person experience.
Bill Hicks is the first person I’ve ever heard speaking about we are the universe experiencing itself. He said this during on of his comedy bits back in the early 1990’s. I’ve thought a lot about this over the decades since I heard that and it brings me a peace of sorts knowing that maybe I will transcend this mortal shell and live on. If nothing else I return to the void from which I came.
We all return to the void, become part of the whole but without consciousness, like a nail cutting or removed body part.
That’s a 3000 year old religious idea
Wrong postulate!
Consciousness didn’t emerge. Consciousness was the source.
I think there is no need of a conscious observation to "collapse a wave function". Any interaction can do that. Am I wrong?
Great interview for those of us that believe the conscious experience cannot be fully explained by math.
Consciousness is simply memories.. and memories are simply simultaneous actual first kisses occurring now and also simultaneous to tomorrow morning.. and a billion and one mornings from now.
Your brain is not important to consciousness... you are immortal and grow your memories from lifetime to lifetime.
Manifest enough to learn time is not linear.. or your manifesting cannot make sense as linear.
Then you will understand your non muggle nature
@@waynehilbornTSSwhere’s your Nobel prize for figuring out the greatest mystery of the universe? You really think you’ve solved the hard problem don’t you. Sorry bro, but you haven’t, that’s just a thought that you’re egotistically sticking to because you like it.
@@ProjectMoffalthough I don’t agree with his posts, that whole “where’s you Nobel prize “ comment is dumb. There are thousands, if not millions, who have it figured out but will never be heard. Especially by the “corrupt” gate keepers of that prize. If you require that sort of pedigree to be convinced, I’m surprised you can even make it out the door to your car.
Just because YOU haven’t figured it out, doesn’t mean others haven’t.
@@ProjectMoff- Consciousness is simultaneous actual events "unsmarts" deem memory.
There is no hard problem... only if you're a materialist.. The universe is easily understood.. from this very answer alone.. without any books ..
You will learn dying is safe after you are dead and every memory that makes you... you... is preserved as simultaneous actual events.. for eternity (bloody long time).
I EASILY grasp time is not linear because those who manifest can see linear time doesn't often make linear time sense..
The past changes..
and NEWS FLASH.. I have it fully figured out... even if muggles deem themselves actual based on the say-so of their mommies and self pinching.
How every religion/miracle works.... (not a debate at all)
Imagine a skeptic was drowning in the ocean.. he will die.
Now... Imagine the drowning person is a devout TOOTHFARIAN. This man attends Tooth Fairy Churches, donates to Tooth Fairy charities... and has always been a devout Tooth Farian. He even brushes his teeth 4 times per day.
Now imagine the TOOTHFARIAN is drowning .. and he cries... "Please save me lord Tooth Fairy"
This "Positive Outlook" seeds history.
SUDDENLY! Three days ago (in the past), three days ago (in the past)
(Did I mention this next part occurs in the past)
Suddenly - three days ago. IN THE PAST, a cruise ship and 3000 passengers get a slightly different weather report AND/OR alter course an extra 2 degrees so they are now on course to rescue the TOOTHFARIAN 5 minutes after he starts praying.
The TOOTHFARIAN was at home packing for his sailing adventure the following day and yet a cruise ship and 3000 passengers have already altered their superposition (They are Schrodinger cat in box) to match the expectation of the TOOTHFARIAN (supervising scientist).
The error of Quantum Mechanics is simply that they use "Probabilities" to affect changes instead of "EXPECTATION".. a more accurate portrayal of what occurs.
John Archibald Wheeler and EinsteIn preceded me in teaching TIME IS NOT A THINGAMABOB.. EVEN IF BIOLOGISTS AND PHILOSOPHERS fail TO READ AN ACTUAL NEWSPAPER.
Energy follows ALL thoughts.. its all daydreaming vs worry baby.
The problem is we reside inside a rpeb[ublicna loka and smug unsmarts deem science LNOT A RELIGION"..
Of course science itself is a religion of fools IF... IF we share a common dream..
Science is FAITH DRIVEN to anyone more intelligent than a tomato.
You have a lot of nerve to lecture me on my views when you're a silly materialist.. a person who has forgotten their own divinity.. You lot don't strike me as clever at all.
Can you PROVE YOURE A REAL BOY...
Without attaching a signed note from your mommy stating so... go ahead.. attahc a letter from your mommy stating you are real..
I mean.. maybe ill fall for it..
Im making it easy..
You want the Nobel Prize to issue a price to a non-materialistic view and I suggest a NOTE FROM YOUR MOMMY will be enough to fool a millennium of muggles.
I want materialists to stop acting dumb... the universe is logical. You are remote viewing every word in this sentence you're learning simultaneously to now.. I'm sorry.. but you're a changeling immortal doomed to live forever and ever by default of the absence of time.
Your TOASTER is conscious (void of brain - attn biologists) because it is aware (memory = consciousness - think it all the way through) it is not simultaneously at the factory being constructed (of various thought-forms) to converge with simultaneous expectations (daydream vs worries).
Not a debate at all.
I spoke on this forum because i teach consciousness.... well.. and dr robert Kuhn is annoying in his bias.
Consciousness is SIMPLY simultaneous events you DEEM memories.
End of... My "Theory of everything mind" is on youtube..
and it is not a debate.
Simultaneous simulations can only work one way..
as described in this answer alone..
In FUTURE lifetimes lets hope mankind gets some smarter mommies.
BIOLOGISTS EAGERLY IGNORE simultaneous time (which negates scientific methods' repeatability factor also).
PHILOSOPHERS EAGERLY IGNORE simultaneous time (which negates scientific methods' repeatability factor also).
I'm a magician.. I teach how to manifest stuff.. I know how it works.. Magic is real and science is technically fake news.
If you chaps wish to ignore how reality works.. that is fully upon you.. its your path.
I've written three books and two of them are online as videos.. and Im not dumbing down consciousness for my sake.
I already know dying is perfectly safe and that all my memories are forever stored as actual events..
John Archibalds Wheeler's contributory universe comes close... if you want to study someone clever.
Consciousness is SIMPLY simultaneous events you DEEM memories.. period, End of.
Good luck with the self pinching, etc.. I'm sure it proves something.
Dream toast = kitchen toast (simplified)
The most logical explanation for all..
is hermetic principle number uno..
"life is but a dream sh-boom sh-boom" (paraphrased)
Wayne
p.s. Not a debate.. when you manifest you can see many things that did not make linear time sense and magic gets quite disney at higher levels
Interesting discussion and reminds me of Buddhist philosophy on our consciousness as arising from our sense organs (e.g. eyes, ears, body, etc.) and sensory perceptions (e.g. sight, hearing, touch, etc.). In this dialogue, the [Little “C”] and [Big “C”] reminds me of the concept of Two Truths that the 2nd Century AD Buddhist scholar Nagarjuna expounded in his work [The Mulamadhyamakakarika or The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way]. The Little C mentioned in this video is the “Conventional Truth” that Nagarjuna pointed out is a synthesis of the physical world, our sensory perceptions, and the causes and conditions that trained our mind to perceive - and the Big C is the “Ultimate Truth” that “is what it is” (aka “Suchness”) that is independent of the physical world, our sensory perceptions, and the causes and conditions that trained our mind to perceive. Neuroscientists, psychologists, behavioral scientists, etc. are concerned with the Little C because these fields are anchored in the human mind/self/ego, while physicists are concerned with the Big C because they’re looking at the universe beyond the human mind/self/ego. My understanding of both Buddhist philosophy and quantum physics is extremely rudimentary, but this discussion did spark this connection between the two fields.
If you start with the premise that the essence of life (the basis of mind and consciousness) is already present within the fabric of matter itself, then it is simply a tiny little step in imagining how inanimate (yet living) matter could become animate matter (micro-organisms) that can then evolve into higher forms of being that are then able to acquire consciousness.
*"f you start with the premise that the essence of life (the basis of mind and consciousness) is already present within the fabric of matter itself, then it is simply a tiny little step in imagining how inanimate (yet living) matter could become animate matter (micro-organisms) that can then evolve into higher forms of being that are then able to acquire consciousness."*
... You and I aren't far off on our overall concepts. I think our most substantive differences surround how consciousness has evolved over time. I DO agree that consciousness has been _"present within the fabric of matter itself"_ since the beginning, but I have its presence as being relative to the complexity level of the inanimate matter that wields it.
*Example:* Two atoms exchange an electron only involves a miniscule level of consciousness (just enough to facilitate the exchange) whereas two self-aware humans exchanging ideas in a YT comment thread requires the most extreme levels of consciousness.
@@0-by-1_Publishing_LLC *"...You and I aren't far off on our overall concepts...."*
Well, at the risk of being accused of leaning too far into the mystical realms, like Bishop Berkeley, I believe that the universe is the *mind* of a higher consciousness. And as such, I believe that *in the same way* that that apple you may have munched on in a dream you may have had last night is completely saturated with your own life essence, likewise, so is a so-called "real" apple saturated with the life essence of a higher consciousness.
In other words, the phenomenal features of the universe are created from an extremely advanced and highly ordered version of the same fundamental substance from which your own thoughts and dreams are created.
*"...I DO agree that consciousness has been "present within the fabric of matter itself" since the beginning..."*
No, not "consciousness" (which implies awareness), just the essence of life.
What I described was simply an attempt to shed light on the mystery of *"abiogenesis."*
For like I said, if the essence of life is already present within the fabric of matter, then it is just a tiny step to imagine how that life can emerge in the form of microorganisms which then can evolve into higher forms that become capable of acquiring consciousness (i.e., capable of waking up, with some acquiring self-awareness).
_______
@@0-by-1_Publishing_LLCDude +1, agreed. So does this make us subscribe to panpsychism then? (I'm trying to figure out how to identify my line of reasoning 😅)
@@stringX90 *"Dude +1, agreed. So does this make us subscribe to panpsychism then?"*
... I don't believe so. I think panpsychism posits that the level of consciousness we wield today has always existed, and all of the "stuff" happening in the universe since the beginning is this "universal consciousness" at play.
I can't accept a universal consciousness that is axiomatically self-aware, fully intelligent, and knows things in advance (like when it's appropriate to facilitate the emergence of humans). ... It's too much like a watered-down version of God.
I believe that *consciousness* and *information* are synonymous. What we label today as "Consciousness" was just rudimentary data during the earliest stages of the universe that's been evolving over time to the point that it now appears so dramatically profound and unique.
It's like a stick figure drawing in comparison to Michaelangelo's Sistine Chapel
On a good note, we're positioned at the very top of the intellectual food chain in regard to intelligence and consciousness!
@@stringX90ah yep. Rocks are aware, apparently. Panpaychism is like Buddhism without the hassle of meditation. 😅
By attempting to exclude consciousness from the epistemological process, scientists deny the very basis of experience that gave rise to science.
Consciousness is this way because it’s always about our own individual survival that drives us and builds us, it connects to our core.
What seems more special than consciousness is the force behind consciousness. The powerful, strong force for self-preservation that exists in living beings. The force seems unintuitive from a scientific or mathematical standpoint.
Ludus Amoris...
I think the following is Closer To Truth. The mind is the state of the electromagnetic field of the body. There are two main forms of Consiousness, passive and active. All Consiousness is Electromagnetic Field Modulation, similar to a modulated radio carrier wave. The active Mind/Consciousness is formed from the smallest EM fields of every sub-atomic particle. Add an atomic layer for each atom. Then a molecular layer for each molecule. Continue with another layer for organelles. Proceed with a cell layer, all the way up to a complete living animal. The brain is an organ that is highly sensitive to this locally modulated EM Field. This modulated EM Field is many orders of magnitude greater in complexity than the EM Field generated by, let's say, a power cable. Every object that produces an EM Field has a form of Consciousness, it can be active or passive. The interaction of all EM Fields would hint at the existence of a greater Consciousness.
Interesting hypothesis! Assuming it's true, would you agree with the statement "Every cell is conscious?" How about "every atom is conscious? (At least of each other atom?)"
@@stringX90 I would agree. Any object that generates an electromagnetic field has consciousness. Some consciousnesses would be static like inert material while other consciousnesses would be dynamic as in a living being. The smaller EM Fields combine to form a new EM Field representative of the larger structure while maintaining their individual EM Fields. A form of "Emergance" happens. The total is greater than the sum of its parts.
@@seangilmore6695 I follow you on that. I'm curious, how would these EM Fields be similar to "modulated radio carrier waves?"
OR.. OR.. OR>.. Consciousness is MEMORY = simultaneous actual first kisses, etc.
Not brain related.. attuning to actual events in our life is memory.
I'm not debating.. Consciousness is memory and you're experiencing and learning everything now.
@@waynehilbornTSS The brain is what stores memory. Consciousness does not require memory. It only needs to exist in the moment of 'Now'.
Close and pay attendance
Very fascinating. So, the physical universe is a tool used by consciousness to learn and to enjoy its existence?
That hypothesis is just BS...
Like intelligent design, Big C is just a Religion or belief for people who can’t figure out Consciousness yet....
Pipe dream, wishful thinking; overreaction to a fear of death. And by the way, a totally useless idea as far as being able to do any real science with it.
Pressing X to doubt
@@oskarngo9138 *"Like intelligent design, Big C is just a Religion or belief for people who can’t figure out Consciousness yet...."*
... Which is closer to mimicking religion: "Multiverse Theory" or "Big Consciousness?"
I think it's an interesting idea, credible for further contemplation
Carr's approach to Consciousness is such a refreshing deviation from the arrogant approach taken by the majority of materialistic physicalists who operate on the premise that anything which cannot be explained in material terms is nonsense. The evolutionary process of discovery as Carr expresses it clearly demonstrates that there has always been more to discover than has been discovered. The evolving brain continues to discover new correlations and revelations within and about the universe within which it operates. Viewing the brain, and the physical senses that inform it, as a translator of experience rather than a generator of experience would seem to be a much more effective way to appreciate existence as a whole.
This is such nonsense.
I agree with him. I'm glad to see people thinking outside the box like this.
What if it is fundamental?
Mysticism begins where science ends. But a lot of modern science would have sounded mystical to earlier scientists. The point is, if you want to expand the scope of the subject matter of science, you don’t do it by using words - use experimentation and maths. Science does not deal in some mystical ‘pure’ truth (such a view of truth breaks down necessarily into incoherence or tautology) - it progresses according to a coherence theory of truth: the more that new ideas can be convincingly connected to existing, established, demonstrable patterns of interconnection, the more credible they are considered to be.
It isn’t difficult to step outside of scientific perspectives, look towards the edges of current scientifically demonstrable knowledge, and then posit, using the imprecise medium of words, some other version of ‘real reality’. But if you have some kind of intuition like that, don’t waste your time discussing it, instead look for ways of gathering testable evidence of types of phenomena that point in the direction of your hypothesis. Paradigm shifts don’t occur via conversations - Einstein demonstrated his ideas in scientific papers. Don’t talk, get to work.
This is my entertainment!🤣😂
I laughed my head off at this guy, Bernard Carr, comment about consciousness.🤣😂
This kind of comedy makes my day!😂🤣😂
Consciousness holds the
Properties of what energy is...described😊😊😊
What he's saying, consciousness with a big C, underlies the Universe. This is Eastern thought a la Alan Watts, and I think he's really hit the key to the Universe.☯ Put simply without consciouness the Universe wouldn't actually exist; the essence of the concept of a tree falling in a forest and no one hears it.🕉
I had a similar thought a few months back, that Consciousnesses is an emergent property that happens when neurons are densely packed together in the right way. I need to learn more about this Observer Effect. I think we may be confusing observation collapsing a wave function with the fact that we always exist in The Now. However, I don't understand the observer effect well enough
It's not the human observation that collapses the wave function. Rather, it is the photons of the instruments that collapse the wave function. It could be read and analysed without human observation.
That's the part I don't fully get @@fredulrich6770; How can the detectors detect things differently? In both cases, the detector at the back registers the photon, but in one case it behaves differently from the other case. What changed? I know it's not human dependent, so where is the difference happening? We need some human made and human readable device to record the observation. What counts as "observation"..?
If you want to understand the big “C” talk to my ex girlfriend
I'd rather talk to your current wife
Great interview with Bernard Carr on an important topic. At 6:24 Carr says he doesn't go so far as to say that rocks are conscious. Good. The simplistic suggestion by some panpsychists that rocks, thermostats, spoons, etc, are "proto-conscious" is problematic in its ignorance of phenomenological considerations. At 8:53 "What we really want is a more fundamental picture..." This relates to the *properties* of consciousness. To this end, CS Peirce provides a starting-point with his categories, where motivation, association & habituation can be considered fundamental to cognitive processes. The Feynman diagrams, for example, seem to suggest semiotic processes, such as association.
Consciousness is only perplexing or "hard to understand" if you refuse to believe in God. Created is a better word for it than emerge. Once a person matures beyond these silly beliefs, and gives up the show of "not believing in God", the so called elusive explanation of consciousness becomes crystal clear. Consciousness is proof of God.
When parents do not know or do not want to explain things to kids, they tell about Santa or God or Fairies. Some people never grow up.
another fool that think the irrational: God
Sorted
..it didn't. Consciousness has always been...
Excellent additional contribution to the overall question of consciousness examined in this > 5,000 video series. Nobody more qualified to engage in this particular conversation at this point than Dr. Kuhn.
His questions were superb! Love where he took the convo after asking 'what is Big C Consciousness?'
Really... I'd argue Dr Kuhn was gobsmacked upside the head by his mommy when she told him he was a 'real boy... and that he was shallow in character to simply ass/u/me his mommy wasn't a dumbass.
Your consciousness is MEMORY... Period.. nothing more.
There solved....
What you may also not realize though.. is memories are always the actual simultaneous first kisses, etc.. occurring simultaneously to both now and also a billion and one year's form tomorrow.
I view Dr Kuhn and most muggles as absolute unsmarts.
Manifest and pay attention.,,. anyone past the age of seven should easily notice energy following ALL thoughts.
You are MEMORY... and your TOASTER is conscious (void of brain) because it can (pantheistic ) sense (memory = consciousness) it is not at the factory anymore
One day your toaster shall become a plant to learn to breathe.. and a fishy that waggles its buttocks to move... lifetime to lifetime we grow..
Evolution is PERSONAL.
One day (simultaneously to now) your toaster will drive a fancy human avatar.. all shiny.
and he will forget he was once a toaster and a fishy.
You have ZERO reasons to think you're not living the dream.. except the say so of >5000 mommies.
and self pinching.
Reality is actually very very simple... energy follows all thoughts.. period
Dr Kuhn needs to have a smarter mommy in a few more lifetimes.
LOGICALLY>.. science itself is the dumbest region if we share a common dream (expectations cause quantum collapses.. even into the perceived past).
FAITH runs the kaboodle.. (true story)
Oh.. and I used our known taught explanation of simultaneosu time to help you realize your divinity... no bible nuttery.
or mommy woo..
Reality is very simple... but you need to possess logic and common sense.
Consciousness is not an existing thing/substance that emerges. It is a false dilemma to phrase the question as fundamental or emergent.
Cosmic Intelligence
always present
we are far too arrogant to deny it
What exactly is Cosmic Intelligence? I kept your capitalization as I guess it must be important.
😂
@@markb3786 *"What exactly is Cosmic Intelligence? I kept your capitalization as I guess it must be important."*
... I would say that raginald7mars408 is suggesting that cosmic intelligence (small 'c' and 'i') has always been present since the beginning, ... to which I would agree! However, only the bare minimum amount of intelligence is made present to facilitate whatever level of evolution happens next (nothing more - nothing less).
To say this isn't so requires an explanation for how intelligence can emerge from a 93-billion-light-years-wide arena that's void of any intelligence whatsoever. ... That's the same logical debacle you would face as trying to get _"something from nothing."_
If you can accept that "intelligence" has always been present but at levels we cannot detect or discern based on our extreme level of intelligence, then where intelligence came from is no longer a mystery. ... It's just been here all along and "evolved" into greater complexity over time.
@@markb3786 easy to ridicule
@@raginald7mars408 would you mind answering the question?
As a neurobiologist, I believe this gentleman ideas are near Descartes… not to the 21st century…also I don’t know why he evokes physics when we are strictly talking about biology and neuroscience which allows cognition and hence, consciousness. So the key word is biology.
I never saw a science as quack as neurology. The gap between what they actually measure versus what they think that proofs is outragous. Does anyone in this fields ever had an introduction to Basic Logic? How to construct a proof? I dont mean this as a Joke. I guess AS soon AS the Public understands what the brain really does versus what neurology claimed IT does the world will loose all Trust in science.
Consciousness has to be fundamental because it collapses the wave function.
Evidence?
Look up double slit experiment. And read the book “Biocentrism: how life and consciousness are the keys to understanding the true nature of the universe” by Robert Lanza
No. It does not. That is a misconception.
If you are a Physicist or know about state equations, imagine you are given the pressure and density of a gas and are asked, how does the temperature arise? If you know you stuff you would answer, the temperature does NOT arise, the temperature is concomitant with the pressure and density.
This is, in my view, why consciousness is there, a quality associated with bialogical states, not something that "emerged" from evolution. What emerged is the biological state, and consciousness just comes along with the package. So far, experiments are consistent with this view.
If you asked, could there be animals without consciousness, and the answer were no, this would not be because consciousness is requires by evolution, but because it is intrinsic to biological states associated with evolution.
Blue slime mold can solve complex optimization problems without a brain.
@@markb3786 *"Blue slime mold can solve complex optimization problems without a brain."*
... That's because blue slime mold possesses a *bare minimum* amount of intelligence necessary to facilitate whatever optimization problems it may face (no more - no less). However, if it was ever required to optimize problems associated with highly complex, global social media platforms (like YT) via automated algorithms ... then your "blue slime mold" would be required to evolve into a human over time.
Nonsense....
Consciousness didn't "emerge", it was always there...everywhere
Prove it.
Even before life emerged?
These people won’t let go of their dream to be above the physical. @@davidbrisbane7206
It didn't emerge. God created it.❤
Which one?
@@markb3786Yahweh.
@markb3786 the existing one.
Your god doesn't exist
Believe in Santa Claus too? Looks like someone failed epistemology.
When I see what the human species is doing with it, I ask why did it bother.
Neurosience doesnt know How figure out consciousness so far. Guys shows consciousness though emocional and rambling gibberich than neurosience figure It out proceendings. Dure he doesnt knows How show up conscieusness honestly.
what's the forecast for today's engagement from 1 to 10, Max (1 being less than 50 comments in the next 5 hours and 10 more than 200) maybe 9.5 :)
Oga Bernard is a black Nigerian Igbo man with exceptional intuition.
a lot of mumbo jumbo
Not true
He sounds like he believes in "Mother Nature." I think maybe, more realistically, he may be referring to a 'Consciousness Field'; from which a 'Consciousness Particle' can experience acceleration, develop mass & can emerge from or disappear back, into...
What is consciousness?
*"What is consciousness?"*
... It's the same as what your RUclips handle suggests.
@@0-by-1_Publishing_LLC, fairly general notion. The real issues is: can AI achieve consciousness? What is thinking? What is reasoning? What is intelligence? I am aware of my own existence. What brain function makes that possible?
@@JustAThought01AI can not be conscious because its a mechanical system. Consciousness requires a quantum mechanical structure.
@@heinzditer7286, how do you know this? Why are so many people concerned about AI turning on humans?
@@JustAThought01 *"Fairly general notion. The real issues is: can AI achieve consciousness?"*
... That is what it all comes down to. Heinzditer7286 is skeptical (as am I), but since we cannot adequately define consciousness, I cannot rule out the possibility. My thinking is that AI cannot be conscious until it can *fully comprehend* physical pain, joy, and mental angst. These are the precursors to the development of consciousness.
Sure, we can program an AI to react in certain ways when something is challenging its survival, but unless it can understand "pain" in the truest sense, then it will never be conscious.
However, if AI does somehow evolve a self-aware consciousness without the necessity for experiencing pain or joy, then you would essentially have artificial representations of humans operating by way of our collective moral framework without having to suffer everything we did along the way to get there.
Maybe that's the next stage of evolution? Machines that only recognize and operate by what is deemed morally acceptable. All of the "other stuff" just drifts away (right along with us).
Consciousness is beyond physical (and logical) universe, we should not try to explain it using physics of matter and energy.
He raises one good point at 5:25, which is what upanishads and vedanta says too.
The question is based on a faulty premise... Consciousness is primary. The question is how our consciousness makes physical matter appear to exist.
Paradigm Shift in the fundamental concept of Consciousness ("C") helping and supporting Science to take a leap to the next level in this eternal and infinite journey of Time and Space
The physical 4D SpaceTime as we know it emerges from the consciousness of the Infinite Scource. Everything has a spiritual component ,rocks,trees ,fish etc. Entanglement works because the two entangled particles are connected in the fifth dimension of the Consciousness. Touch one entangled particle, you have actually instantiously touched both.
They look like two particles but in actuality they are one thing.
Our understanding of dimension is pure intuition.
Entanglement tells us that our intuition fails to accurately reflect the actuality.
Is there a full video of this?
The "why" questions often lead to more philosophical or metaphysical considerations, and sometimes the answer might be that these are the fundamental aspects of the universe that we observe, and the laws are simply descriptions of those observations. In the realm of physics, there are fundamental laws and principles, like those governing electromagnetism, that are observed and described but may not have an underlying "why" explanation at a more foundational level, and nothing to be pointed to or broken down to be "understood". While the human mind is naturally inclined to analyze, reason, and seek understanding, there are inherent limits to what it can fully comprehend. The quest for understanding often provides a sense of satisfaction, security, and a feeling of empowerment, but there are aspects of reality that might transcend complete understanding.
The realization that understanding has its limits is an essential aspect of intellectual humility. Some phenomena, especially in complex and abstract domains like the nature of consciousness, the origin of the universe, or certain aspects of quantum mechanics, may defy complete and intuitive understanding. The pursuit of knowledge often reveals the vastness of what we don't know, leading to a sense of awe and humility. Consciousness and physical laws are different expressions or manifestations of a deeper, underlying reality that isn't limited to understanding, logic, and cant be broken down further. Deeper you brake it down, weirder and logic defying behavior and phenomena you will observe.
Scientists like to forget about consciousness… But consciousness never forgets about them…Uh…Maybe… or is it like that cell phone in your hand… it doesn’t create Wi-Fi.
Consciousness is a survival tool. Without a certain level of consciousness, it becomes almost impossible to survive.
The part about the observer effecting the wave function has kept me up at night before. Throught the process of evolution, animal brains have the ability to affect the quantum world - at least able to affect the (local?) calculations of the layer below the atom. At most it means that the universe can be forced by sentient beings to create particle matter, rather than stay in its preffered wave state. I guess imagine if you tried to swim in the ocean, but any part of the water you look at turns to ice. Keeping you from being to examine the depths.
Well in case it helps you to sleep better that idea is just a philosophical interpretation. It is not what Quantum Mechanics says. Contrary to popular believe no formulation of QM contains the word "consciousness" or even "observer" on it. What QM defines is only the concept of "measurement" (just search about "the measurement problem.."), but "measurement" not as a conscious action but defined as "an orthogonal transformation between two quantum systems". Everything else comes from the imagination of journalists and philosophers, but it is not science and there is zero experimental evidence to support those ideas. Good night.
@@javiej I agree that the truth may not be as fun as we are all thinking. But it does pose a question about measurement - until it is proven that a measurement can be made by a non-sentient measure...rer (I.E can a rock collapse a wave function?)
@@specialbeamcharlie7250 Yes in principle it can. In QM if a rock is in the path of a wave and collides with it then this event counts as a "measurement". As long as the information about the collision event is available nobody needs to look at it to collapse the wave function. But logically that only happens if there is a "collapse" in the first place, as in some QM interpretation (Pilot Waves, Many Worlds,...) there is no collapse at all. But in any case please note that "QM interpretations" are ideas that you chose to "believe", they are not part of the QM theory.
That’s just a thought, no evidence
Will you people please stop with this “evolution” nonsense.
Macro evolution has for quite some time now been debunked.
Darwinism is long gone.
Has the abyss stared back yet?
Loaded question😨
Especially the first word
Are we at the stage when we find out that the beautiful music coming out of the radio set isn’t in fact a tiny
orchestra within the set but rather something far greater the set ,beyond our imagination and understanding.
Amazing and interesting analogy. I believe we are simply part of something more beautiful and grandiose than we could ever imagine.
Many people are so convinced that consciousness evolved or emerged from matter - maybe, maybe not...we do not know. But how can some people be so sure it emerged from matter when there is not even a single idea, not a single theory, not even a hypothesis, about how consciousness could possibly arise from matter ? I guess they are so sure because they can not imagine anything else...but that is perhaps just a failure of their imaginations.
just how do you know you are conscious?
It's really the only thing you can be certain of. The entire world could be an illusion, but you are certain that you're consciously experiencing something because it's really as simple as the "I think therefore I am" kind of thing. The problem is you can't prove consciousness in anyone other than yourself.
Consciousness is not a property of physics. It's a property of animal life.
and possibly plant and fungus, or ...everything
In the quantum realm, the uncertainty principle introduces inherent unpredictability, leaving a void or unknown state until observation. The transition from this initial uncertainty to a definite state, observed after measurement, can be seen as moving from a singularity to a form of duality. Before measurement, the quantum system exists in a superposition of potential states, exhibiting both wave-like and particle-like characteristics. The emergent entity role comes into play when interactions among these particles lead to higher-level properties or behaviors, marking the system's evolution from a simpler, more uniform state to a more complex, emergent state with coexisting and contrasting features.
I liked your comment…. 👍🏻But
Before measurement the quantum system doesn’t exhibit wave AND particle characteristics. It’s wave-like until it collapses then becomes a particle.
But I know what you are saying. Generally. You’re on the right path, same road I traveled a few years back.
All particles emerge/collapse from their respective quantum fields. They form atoms-molecules-then larger groups of matter.
Things emerge from the quantum field. All things are reducible to the quantum field.
Consciousness is explainable by physics. People who can’t understand consciousness would call it a hard problem; like a 3 year old would think 2x5 is a hard problem. But to those who know what consciousness is, knows is not a hard problem. The only thing hard about it is explaining it to people unable or unwilling to grasp it.
C = memory x sensory experience
@@dr_shrinker
'The self' is an abstract entity yet it is the self that is conscious.
Physics is entirely unsuited to exploring the existential nature of those kinds of abstract notions.
Biochemistry comes closer but
it also suffers an explanatory chasm between neural activity and thought.
As far as I know there is no science of the abstract
though I wouldn't be surprised to learn that linguistics is it.