The Hippies Were Right: It's All about Vibrations, Man • Hacker News Board

Re: The Hippies Were Right: It's All about Vibrations, Man

#11

Post by whatshisface » Fri, Dec 07, 2018, 1:06 PM UTC

flossball wrote: post #3

What did I just read??? I can't help but feel stupider for reading it. This is complete garbage. Some relationship to the internal frequencies of the brain, ie. its various analog clock tree mechanisms means that because all matter is based on subatomic vibrations rocks and atoms have a degree of consciousness too? Wow, my laptop running at 2.2GHz(and various other frequencies) must be a supreme being. Yes, obviously…

>The more sync'ed the more complex the brain obviously

That may not even be true. Octupus brains are constrained to a toroidal geometry because they eat through the doughnut hole. Apparently despite their very large brain sizes and advanced problem solving skills the elements are fairly independent.

Re: The Hippies Were Right: It's All about Vibrations, Man

#12

Post by amelius » Fri, Dec 07, 2018, 1:14 PM UTC

whatshisface wrote: post #2

I'm not sure if it should be called a theory, given that it's completely unfalsifiable. It is totally impossible to determine through observation whether or not anything beyond yourself is conscious, unless by conscious you mean physically awake.

I suppose it can be called a theory, just not a scientific theory.

Otherwise, it would not be possible to find any theory for consciousness, but in fact people are still trying to find one.

Re: The Hippies Were Right: It's All about Vibrations, Man

#13

Post by whatshisface » Fri, Dec 07, 2018, 1:18 PM UTC

amelius wrote: post #12

whatshisface wrote: post #2

I'm not sure if it should be called a theory, given that it's completely unfalsifiable. It is totally impossible to determine through observation whether or not anything beyond yourself is conscious, unless by conscious you mean physically awake.

I suppose it can be called a theory, just not a scientific theory. Otherwise, it would not be possible to find any theory for consciousness, but in fact people are still trying to find one.

Why can't it be impossible to find any theory of consciousness? Unless you define the word theory to mean something it doesn't mean to scientists, it is impossible to have a theory of consciousness. At best there could be speculation about consciousness.

Re: The Hippies Were Right: It's All about Vibrations, Man

#14

Post by agumonkey » Fri, Dec 07, 2018, 1:20 PM UTC

flossball wrote: post #3

What did I just read??? I can't help but feel stupider for reading it. This is complete garbage. Some relationship to the internal frequencies of the brain, ie. its various analog clock tree mechanisms means that because all matter is based on subatomic vibrations rocks and atoms have a degree of consciousness too? Wow, my laptop running at 2.2GHz(and various other frequencies) must be a supreme being. Yes, obviously…

It's only a supreme being when surrounded by 2.2GHz laptops in sync

Re: The Hippies Were Right: It's All about Vibrations, Man

#15

Post by starbeast » Fri, Dec 07, 2018, 1:24 PM UTC

Stephen Collins satirised this kind of 'science reporting' pretty well - https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/beyond_the_beyond/2009/07...

On a long enough timeline, all popular science magazines eventually decay into motheaten old copies of BBC Focus.

Re: The Hippies Were Right: It's All about Vibrations, Man

#16

Post by mathattack » Fri, Dec 07, 2018, 1:26 PM UTC

The Mindscape podcast touches on a lot of these issues. More recently [0] they had David Chalmers who was quoted in the OP.

[0] https://overcast.fm/+Nvq_vr69w

Re: The Hippies Were Right: It's All about Vibrations, Man

#17

Post by csomar » Fri, Dec 07, 2018, 1:27 PM UTC

flossball wrote: post #3

What did I just read??? I can't help but feel stupider for reading it. This is complete garbage. Some relationship to the internal frequencies of the brain, ie. its various analog clock tree mechanisms means that because all matter is based on subatomic vibrations rocks and atoms have a degree of consciousness too? Wow, my laptop running at 2.2GHz(and various other frequencies) must be a supreme being. Yes, obviously…

The hypothesis is worthy of pursuit, in my opinion. The article is not well written, however. If you say matter can't have consciousness then how does your brain have one? Your brain in made of matter.

There are definitively varying degrees of consciousness and self-awareness. I don't think that someone who is an 1. atheist 2. knows that consciousness is made by the brain neurons or some processes; has the same self-awareness as someone who is 1. religious and 2. thinks he has a soul.

Look at living creature. Look at a cell. It is a living thing but it is made by much fewer atoms and molecules than the human body. It is interesting to watch what we consider "dead matter" being alive. They are both matter and atoms at the end of day.

Is a cell trying to survive its environment inside the human body conscious? Is a human trying to survive its environment inside the country/system conscious? Is a country trying to survive its environment inside planet earth conscious?

Re: The Hippies Were Right: It's All about Vibrations, Man

#18

Post by limbicsystem » Fri, Dec 07, 2018, 1:36 PM UTC

I wonder... Professor Schooler is a pretty high-profile scientist (https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=3UEI9NIAAAAJ&hl=...). But I don't see any publications with Tam Hunt (who seems a little... eccentric? (https://www.collective-evolution.com/2018/03/21/carl-jungs-s...). I wonder if this is just some guy who has managed to get 'visitor status' at UCSB and is taking an unwitting scientist's work out of context? In what sense is he a 'colleague'?

Re: The Hippies Were Right: It's All about Vibrations, Man

#19

Post by _Schizotypy » Fri, Dec 07, 2018, 1:39 PM UTC

csomar wrote: post #17

flossball wrote: post #3

What did I just read??? I can't help but feel stupider for reading it. This is complete garbage. Some relationship to the internal frequencies of the brain, ie. its various analog clock tree mechanisms means that because all matter is based on subatomic vibrations rocks and atoms have a degree of consciousness too? Wow, my laptop running at 2.2GHz(and various other frequencies) must be a supreme being. Yes, obviously…

The hypothesis is worthy of pursuit, in my opinion. The article is not well written, however. If you say matter can't have consciousness then how does your brain have one? Your brain in made of matter. There are definitively varying degrees of consciousness and self-awareness. I don't think that someone who is an 1. atheist 2. knows that consciousness is made by the brain neurons or some processes; has the same self-…

Your brain has consciousness because of the networking of the neurons that make it up

Re: The Hippies Were Right: It's All about Vibrations, Man

#20

Post by _Schizotypy » Fri, Dec 07, 2018, 1:40 PM UTC

saalweachter wrote: post #7

fabatka wrote: post #5

> we have developed a “resonance theory of consciousness” that suggests that resonance—another word for synchronized vibrations—is at the heart of not only human consciousness but of physical reality more generally. Riiiight. How delusional must one be to actually take the time to publish something with this as a core idea?

> Tam Hunt is a practicing lawyer (renewable energy law and policy) by day and by night a scholar (affiliated with the University of California Santa Barbara's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences) in the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of biology and the philosophy of physics.

Too bad philosophy isn't actual science