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Consciousness (NEW CONCEPTS)
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Andrew Soltau



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As Deutsch states: 'Spacetime is sometimes referred to as the 'block universe' because within it the whole of physical reality -- past present and future -- is laid out once and for all, frozen in a single four-dimensional block.' (1997, 268). And as he goes on to explain in some detail, this means that there cannot be any such thing as the passage of time. There is no 'now' that passes from moment to moment, as there seems so obviously to be. Thus the passage of time we all experience is a paradox.

However, this paradox has a very simple solution. As Weyl states: 'The world simply is, it does not happen. Only to the gaze of my consciousness, crawling up the life-line of my body, does the world fleetingly come to life.' (1949, 116).

Of course, if consciousness is part of the physical world, as modern science largely assumes without question, this does not work. However, Chalmers has demonstrated that this is the opposite of the truth; the phenomenon of conscious experiencing can only be: '... a fundamental feature of the world, alongside mass, charge, and space-time.' (1995, 216). In other words, rather than being part of reality, the experiencing consciousness is contextual to reality, all reality.

Which means that Weyl was right all along.

This may seem simply and solely like an intellectual exercise, but it has powerful implications for each and every one of us. This consciousness always continues to experience.

Chalmers, D.: 1995, 'Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness', Journal of Consciousness Studies 2(3):200-19, available online at http://consc.net/papers/facing.html

Deutsch, D.: 1997, The Fabric of Reality, Allen Lane, London.

Weyl, H.: 1949, Philosophy of Mathematics and Natural Science, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
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Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
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We are all avatars, in a computer game, created by another more advanced life form, from a distant planet. We don't realise this as our own ability to create avatars has only reached a basic level. Once our ability to create avatars improves, we will consciously realise our own creators are, of course, also avatars.

The only real question is who created the first avatar, and were they an avatar?

Can you give me any practical application of what you are talking about?
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Andrew Soltau



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It means that 'phenomenal consciousness', ie simply the experiencing consciousness, is not a property of the brain. It is not a property of anything in physical reality. It is a property of the universe as a whole.

So it always continues to experience. This makes sense of immortality. Moravec says we must be immortal, but he does not back it up with a mechanism for how it actually works. He states that when we die:

We lose our ties to physical reality, but, in the space of all possible worlds, that cannot be the end. Our consciousness continues to exist in some of those, and we will always find ourselves in worlds where we exist and never in ones where we don't. (1998)

He is saying that given all possible worlds, there must be a version of the world in which there is a logical continuation of your experiential reality. Therefore, when you die in this world, consciousness continues to experience life in that other version of the world.

His idea explains how immortality would be physically possible, but he does not say how this would be enacted. That is where Chalmers' idea comes in. Consciousness as a property of the universe itself explains exactly how it works. This consciousness does not cease when the body dies - it is not a property of the body.

You could think of it like the end of one reel of a movie that straightaway continues on with the next reel. Up in the projection booth the operator is making sure that the next reel starts just as the last one finishes. Consciousness just keeps on experiencing, so it automatically switches from one lifeline to the next.

Moravec, H.: 1998, 'Simulation, Consciousness, Existence', at http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~hpm/project.archive/general.articles/1998/SimConEx.98.html
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Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
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Can this help me invent something? Or make a lot of money?

Or am I going to end like Diogenes, if I start reading up on all this?
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Chad


In: Ramsbottom
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Wile E. Coyote wrote:
Or am I going to end like Diogenes...?

Shall I order the barrel?
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Tilo Rebar


In: Sussex
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Chad wrote:
Shall I order the barrel?


Yes please, Chad. Harvey's would be good!

As to the possibility of the Multiverse, I'm afraid it is a model produced using convoluted and pushed maths based on wrong assumptions about reality - much like most of the exotic theories produced by modern physics.
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Boreades


In: finity and beyond
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The multi-avatar consciousness is fine with me.

If I remember my Bhagavad-Gita correctly, there is a rather wonderful part where the story-teller has mastered the art of transcending incarnations, except he keeps losing track of which incarnation he is currently in!

I get the same experience after too many pints of Wadworth's finest.

Such larks!
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