91–100 of 311 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If reality has always existed and will continue to exist for eternity, cyclical or not, it is probably inevitable that the configuration of phenomena called "you" will come back together after your death. It's forever afterall.
Maybe, but would that be the same you, or as though someone had made a copy of you?
Where is my mind?
Zenrin
Under Anesthesia, Where Do Our Minds Go? The article itself is good but that title, wow. Our minds don't "go" anywhere any more than the illumination goes somewhere when you snuff a candle. Just as the flame isn't high enough to produce significant light your brain activity isn't high enough to produce coherent thought.
Under Anesthesia, Where Do Our Minds Go? The article itself is good but that title, wow. Our minds don't "go" anywhere any more than the illumination goes somewhere when you snuff a candle. Just as the flame isn't high enough to produce significant light your brain activity isn't high enough to produce coherent thought.
How to approach loss of consciousness is one of the problems I have with non-materialist theories of consciousness like dualism and panpsychism. If consciousness is not generated by my physical brain, how come physical chemicals can manipulate my conscious state? If the brain is a receiver for consciousness, surely my consciousness should exist independently of my brain? Interfering with a radio doesn’t change what’s…
Pick 3 random stones and arrange them so that they form a straight line. Does the line "exist"? If you consider that only the atoms "count" for existing, then the line does not exist. (Neither do the stones, by the way - since they are constantly exchanging minor quantities of atoms and electrons with the rest of the environment, the set that defines what each stone is is constantly changing. But let's ignore that bi…
I take my cue from the physics of information theory and computation. In that view a computation is a process physically performed by a system. The same applies to mathematical calculations. The result exist independently in some transcendent sense, but in order to actually obtain a result a physical system has to perform the process. That physical system exists independently of the abstract mathematics, and independently of any other system performing the same calculation, or computation.
In the same way my brain can have a thought. I can perceive a colour. The pattern of activity might be extremely close to the activity associated with you perceiving the same colour. It might be identical with the pattern of an identical clone or twin of mine experiencing the same perception. Nevertheless they are separate, unconnected, completely independent activities that just happen to have similar interpretations.
That's a strict physicalist view, and it's one I subscribe to as being the most plausible. Nevertheless I'm a human being, I have children, I care about my family and friends, and humanity generally. So clearly patterns matter to me as a person, but that's just in my nature. I don't see any reason to think it's fundamental to anything, because thinking that way IMHO leads to some very wooly thinking. just because gold is shiny and pretty, that doesn't mean I think there's something cosmically magical or special about those wavelengths of light. The experience and appreciation of things is important to us, but it doesn't define reality.
That's just what I wanted to read having my first ever surgery planned for next week, another thing to be afraid of happening!
Under Anesthesia, Where Do Our Minds Go? The article itself is good but that title, wow. Our minds don't "go" anywhere any more than the illumination goes somewhere when you snuff a candle. Just as the flame isn't high enough to produce significant light your brain activity isn't high enough to produce coherent thought.
I find "twilight" drugs way more disturbing. Its clear that people on them are clearly themselves, though less inhibited. But none of what occurs becomes part of their experience. At least consciously.
(I am sure they will settle down, and its for a greater good, but this is one of those 'this may hurt a little' moments)
How to approach loss of consciousness is one of the problems I have with non-materialist theories of consciousness like dualism and panpsychism. If consciousness is not generated by my physical brain, how come physical chemicals can manipulate my conscious state? If the brain is a receiver for consciousness, surely my consciousness should exist independently of my brain? Interfering with a radio doesn’t change what’s…
If the brain is a receiver for consciousness, it does not imply that consciousness exists independently of your brain. The consciousness would require inputs, which come from the brain. You could assume that the consciousness is paused when those inputs stop. Our perception of time is after all subjective. Although this all kind of defeats the purpose of believing in a non-materialist theory of consciousness.