Closer To Truth
How to explain our inner awareness that is at once most common and most mysterious? Traditional explanations focus at the level of neuron and neuronal circuits in the brain. But little real progress has motivated some to look much deeper, into the laws of physics — information theory, quantum mechanics, even postulating new laws of physics.
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Bernard J. Carr is a Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at Queen Mary, University of London. His research interests include the early universe, dark matter, general relativity, primordial black holes, and the anthropic principle.
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Closer to Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.
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We are Meat. consciousness is self-awareness.
…but when the neuro correlates of consciousness are damaged consciousness is affected.
In the first years of life a child will, through its senses, build up a perception of its environment. This will create a internal model of reality in the child's brain. Exactly how this is represented and stored in the brain is probably not well understood. At some stage the child will realise that there is something at the centre of its perception. This will be added to the model and is the beginning of self awareness. This "Self" can then examine the internal model. Is this not the essence of thinking and consciousness?
I agree with Bernard and Giolio
That is my subject. I agree with him
or physic of madness ?
The theory of interference <<< (My own theory)
If you block the chemical called glutamate in the brain (for instance with ketamine), it can result in an out of body experience (also known as a near death experience). Be informed that glutamate is the main neurotransmitter in the brain, and that without it; there would be no significant brain activity at all. ….Conclusion – Brain activity is not the same as consciousness; rather brain activity is what influences, disrupts and affects consciousness; and conscious has to be set free from the brain by the blockage of the brain activity. This situation can be likened to how a magnetic field can attract metal or how a magnetic field can interfere with a mobile phone operating… Well, our brain activity is doing to our consciousness, what a magnetic field does to metal and mobile phones! Now that we think about this conclusion, then knowing that consciousness is fundamentally separate from the body, then the mechanisms involved in the creation and death of the body has nothing to do with consciousness. Next conclusion – Conscious not only survives the death of the body (post-mortal existence), where in we travel to what we believe may be Heaven or Hell; but there has to be a time our consciousness existed before our body began to form (pre-mortal existence), a spirit world we was in before we was in the womb!!!
If conscious is a universal tool and our brain simply translate it, then other animals should be just as good as humans, but its not the case, brain evolution is the reason we differ, I think we even call it consciousness for a lack of better understanding, to me its just a software of our experiences, it cant be in the whole universe, its in our brains, we cant even explain 1% of the whole universe so clearly consciousness is just a tool of our survival
There is only consciousness
Consciousness is simple, it is part of the second law of thermodynamics wherein our role in nature is to increase entropy in the universe. We take in high energy, such as photons (food through plants), and generate low entropy (trash, feces, etc.). We think it's more complicated than that but really all goes back to the displacement of energy, and we accelerate this through our activities, energy consumption, creation of nuclear devices, mass-scale use of food systems, and massive growth of our species…..evidence is everywhere.
Buying a membership at the gym won't get you fit unless you show up regularly & work out.
Being conscious requires you to practice a time honored discipline every day.
What does that discipline comprise of?
Intellectually discussing the subject doesn't help.
You can read 10 books on how to swim…but until you get in the water & practice.. you will sink to the bottom.
Consciousness exists between the past & the future.
Consciousness arises out of the complex interactions of the brain and the rest of the organs of the body.
It's the master organ that receives, interprets, coordinates, filters, etc.
There is no reason to think that there would be full consciousness without all of the organs functioning properly.
The known universe is NOT a closed system and was not "created" by an entity. Free will and consciousness is emergent from the randomness of uncertainty principles in biological entities and absolutely exists, while gods do not, except in the myths cultivated in the minds of propagandized people!
Einstein was a very intelligent person and contributed a lot to our knowledge of light, speed, alluded to mass, energy and relativity, but as an intellect and thinker, he can not hold a candle to Newton! Newton was and IS right about the universal clock and nothing exists other than the present instant in the ticking of the cosmic clock. Look into MOND (Modified Newtonian Dynamics).
As every action that is taking place in this instant is happening regardless of it's position in the universe, but requires an observer to make it a part of our perceived reality. Countless supernova explosions are happening in this instant throughout the known universe, and even though they may not be visible to us, they are, none the less, happening at this moment.
We are not living in a simulation or in a black hole inside another black hole, but everything does work by established natural laws over time according to Newton's "Cosmic Clock". What is now theorized as "Dark Matter and Dark Energy" was actually referred to many years ago as aether or ether.
The universe is not expanding, but rather, all of what we call matter in the universe, which is actually just energy, is shrinking due to the force exerted on it by the ether, or unverified "Dark Matter/Dark Energy", if you prefer to think about it that way. Kind of like CO2 bubbles in a soda under pressure. All that we perceive as the matter of our universe is just a temporary rift in the void.
In much the same way that that we observe energy appearing and disappearing in a vacuum, so have we, on a much larger scale of distance and time. The universe isn't expanding, everything in it is shrinking proportionally which gives the illusion of expansion. It's really just a matter of time, literally!
Like they say, as Newton's "Cosmic Clock" continues to tick, all the stars and galaxies will appear farther and farther away from us and each other until they eventually all just wink out of existence for us as a result of matter, molecules, atoms and subatomic nuclear particles actually shrinking in unison with the passage of time.
Compare the law of gravity, which is the force of the ether compressing matter and forcing us back into the vacuum from which we came, with Hubble's Law, the formula for expansion of the universe, and the formula for electromagnetic radiation over distance, and I think you will see what I'm saying here. They are directly related.
This is why the light from distant galaxies appears to be red-shifted to us and a longer wavelength. The frequency of the originally emitted light didn't change before it reached us, it just appears to be longer waves to us because we are smaller, having shrunk, because of the time that has passed for that light to reach us.
Matter doesn't really exist. It's all basically empty space occupied by transient energy of all frequencies that react with each other to give us what we call reality or particles. What is matter really, other than what we observe and measure it to be?
While I don't agree with the "Big Bang" theory, I do subscribe to a version of the "Many Worlds" theory, which may as well allude to the "Many Universes" theory, however, that is not necessary to explain our existence. It should be obvious soley by intuition that our solar system is NOT the center of the universe, but only the center of our observable universe.
The earth is in the center of the bubble of our known universe and it appears the same regardless of the direction in which you look. New data from the JWST confirms large galaxies existing near the edge of our universe, where they should not be according to the big bang origin theory. Our known universe contains billions and billions of galaxies, which each contain billions and billions of stars, each of which is home to a multitude of planets and moons in differing zones of distance from those stars. The probability of many of those worlds having conditions similar to those here is undeniable.
If you lived on a planet that we consider to be half of the distance from earth to the edge of our known universe, and if you had the same JWST technology to view your own place in your visible universe, what would you see?
Your universe would appear the same to you as ours does to us – a bubble in which you are at the center! But, the fact is that like two venn-diagram intersecting spheres, your known universe would share a part of our known universe. The rest of both universes would be unknown to the other!
The past is behind the "now plank-length-moment" and is set in stone, unalterable, and the future is yet to be written and is certainly not determined. Yes, Space, time and speed will alter conscious observers perceptions of reality, but not what happened in that tick of the cosmic clock.
It would not matter if you could travel at warp speeds, 10, 100 or 1000 times the speed of light, you can never go backwards in time with respect to Newton's cosmic clock. That is to say that you can never leave a place and return to it before you left it.
The question of determinism can not be separated from the debate over consciousness, but, that being said you should also know that it is based on the relationship of perceived reality by a consciousness. Some amount of determinism does exist on the macro-level, and plays out under Newton's cosmic clock.
Think about it like the impending merging of the Milky Way Galaxy with the Andromeda Galaxy and other Newtonian physics down to and including our solar system's existence and our sun's interactions with other stars in our galaxy.
However, determinism on the micro-level as it relates to biological entities and our lives is much less a factor. Consciousness plays a much bigger role there. Peoples lives and events that occur in them are determined more by our conscious decisions that are made in basically three different ways. Many are made emotionally, while some are made logically, and many are a mixed combination of both.
The timelines of our lives generally follow the path that we lay out for them from the time we become sentient and throughout our lives. If you want to see the difference that your conscious decisions make on your reality timeline, try this experiment.
Make a conscious choice to let any significant decisions you make for a set amount of time be determined by a coin toss or cutting a deck of cards, a purely random act of chance. I assure you that the events of your life's expected time line will change drastically, but it will fit nicely with the many worlds theory.
Now, lets talk a little bit about consciousness and it's effect in our lives. First, without consciousness there is nothing, and I do mean NOTHING. The perceptions of our senses actually creates our reality. Without our ability to perceive it, it would not exist. Without consciousness everything that existed would be totally predetermined, but there would be nothing to acknowledge it and give it substance – No reality could exist.
Consciousness is in fact a very complex electromagnetic waveform, call it "brainwaves" if you like, generated by all sentient life forms and just like in electronics theory, the product of merging of all those complex probability waveforms results in many more waveforms that are the sum, the difference, plus all of the originals. The number and types of those interactions are innumerable, or if you prefer "infinite", although I dislike using that word because infinity does not exist any more than "zero" really exists in our reality or math for that matter.
You are the Captain of your own ship of destiny and you pick the directions, speed and ports. Your own reality IS what your mind and senses perceive it to be and it is just as real and valid as anyone else's perceptions of it.
If you only consider the other eight billion people on this earth, with which we have a somewhat shared perception of reality, less with some and much more with friends, family and colleagues, you should quickly realize that it can be considered to be a giant venn diagram with intersections indicating the areas where our individual perceptions of reality converge into a shared reality. If you are reading this, our realities are converging and there is a sharing of our perceived reality going on right now.
I will leave you with one last thought. Consider that our reality is all about consciousness and many worlds and this is the formula for it.
R=I/Z
In which R = "Reality", I = "Infinity", and Z = "Zero"
Anything divided by Zero equals Infinity and Infinity divided by Zero equals "Infinite Infinities"!
Scientists are always saying that correlation does not imply causation unless all that they have to work with is the correlation of phenomena that they want to see as causation.
Does our brain even have the capacity to understand or comprehend? Understanding this concept like we are trying to lift ourselves up by the boot straps.
If everything is determined by physical laws; even if probabilistic in nature, then how could free will exist? Consciousness comes from physical processes that have already taken place and makes predictions about the future. Learning is the reflection we have on the actual outcome. Inputs and outputs, kinda sounds like a program.
So there are actual physicists, people that have studied and factually researched existence, they have a solid understanding of the physical existence of the brain and theories of various functions based on that physical reality and then there "is a different view…". lalalala…
Consciousness is the universe; the universe is consciousness.
Terrible shirt. How could he be “conscious “? Most computers can create a picture for an interface with the user. Can’t cut butter with knife made of butter. Hopeless guff.
If I just imagine the entire universe in my brain, then what particles is that universe made of? If you find an answer to that question, then this problem will be solved.
If you can, or are willing, to acknowledege that there is a spiritual realm then conciousness would be the interface between the physical realm and the spiritual realm.
These guys just tip toed around the question. The consciousness they were getting at is really the God question. Scientist generally avoid that discussion as physics has nothing of substance to say about that. My opinion is that the faith required to believe in God is less than the faith required to believe a universe created itself.
that ended on the dumbest possible premise wtaf
On my deathbed I will receive full consciousness, so I got that goin for me.
LOVE NUCLEAR WAR AND NUCLEAR TERRORISM.
Consciousness is not fundamental. Nothing that is not biological is conscious. Consciousness emerges from physical processes, and when those physical processes are not present, there is no consciousness.
Most of what he said is untrue.
Very interesting. He said, "Brain's role is … to limit your experience." I'm curious, why are we unable to see the wave function of particles? Every time we look, it collapses.
"Imagination, inspiration and creativity are all things that go far beyond simply information storage and memory recall functions. There are those who conjure that it may not be in the brain where it's happening anyway. That it may be a hyperdimential transfer of some sort between dimensions beyond our own consciousness." Dr. Chuck Missler
Physicist here. Been reading a lot about this for quite a while (some Pinker, Dennett, Sopolsky etc. also). I don't see it as a hard problem. A computational model of the brain, with "consciousness" being a bulletin board managed by the frontal lobes that coordinates and accesses sensory inout (post lower level processing), short and long term memory, and logic functions, is quite compatible with "awareness." There is nothing magical about a system like this being able to monitor itself. And it's consistent with current knowledge of how the brain actually functions.
IMO, that's all it is folks. No unusual physical explanations, quantum mechanics, souls, or other magic soup, are needed.
Consciousness = awareness. No one that I know is claiming that we can explain life through consciousness. Why are we not exploring other options to give us answers? It is not consciousness that continuously keeps our hearts beating, regulates our body temperature, digests our food, keeps us taking our next breath and executing an untold number of other tasks without even thinking about it. It sure isn't consciousness that does all these things, because they all happen even if we are unconscious! There has to be some kind of life force that does this, other than consciousness that makes us not only conscious, but alive. Why is consciousness our only option?
The brain weighs about three pounds but it is only a few ounces of neurons within it that generate all of this consciousness and experience. Religious thinkers actually got it right centuries ago when they postulated we have a physical soul. What we call the brain is actually a system of organs. He's right when he says brains limit experience but this is more true of lower mammals and life forms. It is our added language which evolves into science that make us unique. These two men may be scholars but since they are not engineers, they would be just as baffled explaining the inner details of a radio or computer.
I don't think this is a problem that it will ever be solved, how would you be able to prove or disprove any such theory? We can only do scientific experiments.
However in my view panexperientialism is the most direct and logical answer. The idea that "experience", which is NOT necessarily consciousness but at a more fundamental level, is a property of every single phenomena in the universe. Every single elementary particle perceive a VERY fundamental experience when it interacts with another particle. The thing we called consciousness is the collective experience when a complex physical system, like our brain, is able to exchange and elaborate signals forming a neural network. It's not necessarily the same thing as the original panpsychism, which claims that everything has consciousness, it is more refined than that in my opinion.
The brain is the wrong tool to be working out what the perceptive functions of the brain are, rather like a being that lives in a 3 dimensional world is the wrong thing to ask what its like to live in a 4 dimensional world.
As with the 4th dimension, time, we know time exists, but dont really know what it is.
Its the same with consciousness. We know consciousness exists, but dont really know what it is.
Carr's ideas about the mind are unscientific speculation because there is no data for the supernatural. It almost a god-of-the-gaps argument. If the mind were separate, it wouldn't be so easily manipulated by physical changes to the brain.
I always say, in response to videos like this, that Nature solved/created the problem of consciousness long ago, via evolution. We can accept the miracle of consciousness, and understand its workings, just as we accept the miracle of eyesight.
The universe is one thing. Ideas of separation are an illusion. The universe is in constant flux, with aspects gaining complexity. Pockets of complexity allow consciousness/awareness to varying degrees. These are fleeting, like bubbles on a stream.