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Mass is not an elemental particle. It can be further analyzed. To incredibly oversimplify: It is most likely the interaction of subatomic particles with a Higgs field."What is consciousness" may be as utterly irreducible as "what is mass-ness"....
Go study string theory, and then you tell us.and "what is energy-ness". (If one here raises string theory, which explains what is mass-ness and what is energyness, I then respond: What is string-ness? What is the stuff of strings?)
1) Too late.should we start thinking really carefully about sending a bunch of electrons through some silicon wafers when we don't know why it is that doing the same thing through neurons produces you and me?
The potential irreducibility of a human consciousness and its implications.
Short: We can understand the relation of abnormalities in the brain to self-described subjective impressions by a conscious person (read everything Sacks wrote if that interests you; a truly brilliant and compassionate man). We can measure brain activity during the subjective experience of various states.
What we cannot, and I suspect will not ever be able to understand, is how precisely it is that the movement of electrons, blood, and so forth, around the organic set of circuits that is the brain produces consciousness and precisely what it is that the stuff of consciousness consists in.
Consciousness is affected by objects and events describable by physical laws. But it itself is entirely unaffected by physical laws. It is unbounded. It's only apparent physical constraint is that one's own consciousness appears - in a bizarre non-physical way (if you think about it) - to be rooted just behind one's own eyeballs. But even that can be altered by drugs, by traumatic experiences, in dreams, and so forth.
"What is consciousness" may be as utterly irreducible as "what is mass-ness" and "what is energy-ness". (If one here raises string theory, which explains what is mass-ness and what is energyness, I then respond: What is string-ness? What is the stuff of strings?)
Or, will we eventually be able to reduce it to some further (itself irreducible?) part? And what will that mean?
And should we start thinking really carefully about sending a bunch of electrons through some silicon wafers when we don't know why it is that doing the same thing through neurons produces you and me?
I don't accept that what we call 'consciousness' is physically irreducibly complex or that it is not subject to physical laws. The outputs from 'consciousness' maybe appear 'subjectively chaotic' but, I believe that the mechanisms of that process can and will be understood and will act according to physical laws. The analogy that I would use in this context is that we fully understand the processes and rules of football but we can never exactly predict the result of a single game or a season of games. What we may have to face is that just as mathematical models in Physics are approximations of reality, then we will only be able to make predictions within margins of error based upon our knowledge of 'consciousness'.
You think that is how He constructed it? Why did He have consciousness follow physical expression instead of making us think before act?
The potential irreducibility of a human consciousness and its implications.
Short: We can understand the relation of abnormalities in the brain to self-described subjective impressions by a conscious person (read everything Sacks wrote if that interests you; a truly brilliant and compassionate man). We can measure brain activity during the subjective experience of various states.
What we cannot, and I suspect will not ever be able to understand, is how precisely it is that the movement of electrons, blood, and so forth, around the organic set of circuits that is the brain produces consciousness and precisely what it is that the stuff of consciousness consists in.
Consciousness is affected by objects and events describable by physical laws. But it itself is entirely unaffected by physical laws. It is unbounded. It's only apparent physical constraint is that one's own consciousness appears - in a bizarre non-physical way (if you think about it) - to be rooted just behind one's own eyeballs. But even that can be altered by drugs, by traumatic experiences, in dreams, and so forth.
"What is consciousness" may be as utterly irreducible as "what is mass-ness" and "what is energy-ness". (If one here raises string theory, which explains what is mass-ness and what is energyness, I then respond: What is string-ness? What is the stuff of strings?)
Or, will we eventually be able to reduce it to some further (itself irreducible?) part? And what will that mean?
And should we start thinking really carefully about sending a bunch of electrons through some silicon wafers when we don't know why it is that doing the same thing through neurons produces you and me?
Who or what is 'He'?
You would prefer calling Him by another name?
Is it your Christian god that you are talking about? If so, why? What has it got to do with this discussion? Aside from you trying to jemmy it into the debate that is.
You really do not see the connect between the question of 'irreducibilty of human consciousness' and the Mysteries? How absolutely astounding.
I'm afraid that your posts have become irreducibly ridiculous. You are able to say what you mean aren't you?
I did.
But as I note, you might need some time to think about it. But take as much as you do.
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